Chanthunya pleads not guilty to murder of girlfriend Linda Gasa: Court rejects bail bid

Businessman Misozi Chanthunya as pleaded not guilty to the murder of his pregnant  Zimbabwean girlfriend Linda Gasa in 2010.

Asked to make a plea in the High Court on murder charge, Chanthunya denied any wrongdoing.

The court also made a determination  on bail  application which was made through his lawyer Chrispin Ngunde.

State prosecutors Dzikondianthu Malunda and Pilirani Masanjala argued that Chanthunya was a flight risk, saying he was extradited in the country and not that he returned voluntarily.

Judge Redson Kapindu said in his ruling that indeed Chanthunya is a flight risk and that the nature and seriousness  of the offence  warranted that he stays in custody.

Chanthunya made headlines in September 2010 when he skipped Malawi borders after his 25-year-old Zimbabwean girlfriend Linda Gasa went missing for almost a month. The second-year Malawi College of Accountancy student was later found entombed in the 34-year-old Blantyre businessman’s private cottage in the southern resort town of Mangochi.

The married Chanthunya reportedly went to the Lake Malawi resort district to discuss with Gasa, his secret lover, about her five-month-old pregnancy. He wanted her to abort but she refused.

That was the last the two were seen together before the Blantyre businessman eluded police to skip the borders and the accountancy student was found entombed in the bathroom, decomposing.

An international man-hunt was launched with false sightings in South Africa, the United States and Cuba.

He was arrested in January  2012  by Interpol in South Africa.

Chanthunya  will remain in custody at Chichiri Prison until a trial which is expected to start on July 2.

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