Zambia has requested Russia to clarify how one among its residents who had been serving a jail sentence in Moscow ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine, the place he was killed, Zambia’s overseas affairs minister stated on Monday.
Stanley Kakubo stated in an announcement that Russia had notified Zambia in regards to the demise in September of Lemekhani Nyirenda, however didn’t present particulars.
The Zambian pupil was serving a jail sentence at a medium safety jail on the outskirts of Moscow after being convicted of contravening Russian regulation, Kakubo stated, with out specifying the offence that occurred in April 2020.
“The Zambian authorities has requested the Russian authorities to urgently present data on the circumstances beneath which a Zambian citizen, serving a jail sentence in Moscow, might have been recruited to battle in Ukraine,” Kakubo stated.
It was not clear how the prisoner was recruited and by whom. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the small print surrounding his demise.
“He was serving the jail sentence when he was conscripted into the military to go and battle in Ukraine however we don’t know who conscripted him,” the coed’s father Edwin Nyirenda stated.
Russia’s protection ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the circumstances of his journey to Ukraine and subsequent demise.
The 23-year-old, who was learning nuclear engineering at a college in Moscow, was convicted and jailed for 9 years and 6 months, in keeping with Kakubo.
His father stated Lemekhani was jailed for drug trafficking whereas doing a part-time job as a courier.
In accordance with Edwin Nyirenda, his son was given a parcel, which contained medicine and the police weren’t capable of establish the one who gave it to him.
Kakubo stated additional particulars could be supplied as soon as official communication was acquired from the Russian authorities on the circumstances surrounding the Zambian’s demise.
His stays have been transported to the Russian border city of Rostov in readiness for repatriation to Zambia, Kakubo added.
“We simply acquired a message from a person we have no idea in Russia who instructed us that there was a will, which our son left and we should always journey to Russia,” Nyirenda stated.
The household stated they have been planning to go to Russia to establish the physique.
