After the recent announcement by the Zambian President, significant support has poured in his way. On the special occasion of Africa Day, President Hakainde Hichilema announced that he plans to completely abolish the death penalty. Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, who is one of the respected businessmen and philanthropists in Zambia, has extended his legal and regulatory support via his organization Prison Fellowship Zambia. Prison Fellowship was founded by Zambia more than 30 years ago and Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the present Chairman of the organization. Prison Fellowship focuses on providing transparent criminal justice to the prisoners, ex-prisoners as well as their families in Zambia. It also ensures that the Zambian prisoners are not devoid of fundamental human rights and basic human dignity. This is all the more important considering the fact that the present condition of Zambian prisons is extremely degraded, unhygienic and dangerous for living. Reports has also indicated that there are some maximum prisons in Zambia wherein the living conditions are just like hell and prisoners are devoid of even fundamental human rights and basic human dignity. As a result of this condition, the Government of Zambia has collaborated with institutions such as the Parole Board Zambia and Correctional Facility for strategic decongestion of prisoners. This initiative from the Zambian Government is in line with the decision from the Zambian President stating that capital punishment or death penalty holds no value. Dr. Rajan Mahtani has further supported this announcement by stating that there are hundreds of men and women in Zambian prisons awaiting death penalty. For them, every day is a punishment as they are not aware of the day when they will be given capital punishment.
Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani owned Prison Fellowship will rally behind this decision and has already pledged full support towards the abolishment of death penalty and is also looking forward to tangible legal reports. Prison Fellowship understands that transforming this announcement into a reality will require a significant legal overhaul and bureaucratic nightmare and will help in every legal way possible for making this announcement a reality.