66-year old Esther Lungu, was held Thursday evening alongside her two daughters, after being quizzed for hours about properties the family holds in the capital, Lusaka, lawyer Makebi Zulu told Trust Africa News. She has now been released on bail.
“The former first lady has been arrested for being found in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime and money laundering charges,” Zulu said.
He said the properties, a block of flats in Lusaka’s high-end New Kasama district, were built by Lungu’s husband, former president Edgar Lungu, 67.
Zambia’s anti-drug agency said the one time first lady had failed to give a “reasonable explanation” of how she acquired the flats, which had a construction cost of 41 million kwacha ($1.6 million).
They were also “likely to be proceeds of crime,” according to the statement.
Edgar Lungu led copper-rich Zambia from 2015 to 2021, when he lost an election to President Hakainde Hichilema, who had been a veteran opposition leader before winning the vote by a landslide.
Last year, Lungu announced he was to return to politics, with general elections scheduled for 2026. Since then, he has expressed dissatisfaction over the country’s declining democratic space and what he described as a campaign of harassment directed towards his family.
Police issued a warning to him not to politicize his morning jogs, and last week he asserted that he was “practically under house arrest,” a claim that the authorities refuted.
Esther Lungu had previous run-ins with the law before her most recent arrest.
Due to allegations that she had stolen several cars, her house was raided the previous year.
