Coup plotter freed

President Levy Mwanawasa, acting on medical advice, on Monday freed Captain Jack Chiti, one of the masterminds of an attempted coup in 1997, news reports said. Chiti, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is confined to a wheelchair, was one of 46 coup plotters whose death sentences were commuted to between 10 and 20 years of hard labour by Mwanawasa in February. In a letter to Mwanawasa, the doctor treating Chiti wrote: "You have gone a long way by removing the hangman's noose from these fellows. Captain Jack Chiti has been in my ward at UTH [University Teaching Hospital] since he came to Lusaka to await his verdict of his appeal. He now lies on his deathbed awaiting the call from his Creator." The coup attempt, led by Captain Steven Lungu, was in protest against the alleged corruption and incompetence of the government of former president Frederick Chiluba and was quickly supressed. Mwanawasa said in February that he had been informed by prison authorities that Lungu remained unrepentant and was a bad influence on other prisoners. Human rights groups have alleged that the coup plotters were tortured in detention.