5) Decision The Commission noted the fact that the Zambian High Court judge had ruled that there was no evidence to show that Mr Banda had been born in Zambia or had Zambian parents and that Mr Banda had appeared as an unreliable witness. The Judge had also dismissed all arguments from the Government that Mr Banda was Malawi. The Commission considered that the High Court had failed to rule on the reasons for deportation, simply because Mr Banda was not Zambian did not automatically mean that he could be arbitrarily deported. The Commission also considered that Mr Banda possessed a Zambian National Registration Card and a passport and by deporting him immediately he had been denied the right to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship Act. Furthermore the Commission felt it was impossible to ignore the fact that Mr Banda was a prominent political opponent of the ruling party, also that he had been singled out for his ethnic origin and had been deported to Malawi without any evidence that he had roots or contacts there. Mr Chinula, the Commission found, was also a prominent figure in the opposition and had been deported without any chance to have his case heard. In this case the Commission held that the arbitrary removal of citizenship could not be justified. In relation to both victims the Commission found that they had been denied their rights under the African Charter in violation of article 2 assuring equal treatment regardless of political opinion or ethnic origin. The Commission further noted that the actions against the victims had commenced in the 1970s and lapsed until the return to power of the opposition in 1991 and it can therefore be assumed that the actions were politically motivated. 2