Court sends to jail albino killer accomplices for 6 years IHL

The Lilongwe magistrate court on Tuesday sentenced eight men to six years’ imprisonment with hard labor (IHL) for pleading guilty to an offence of conspiracy to commit murder.

The eight are Jezmond Baluwa, 40 years, Steve Ching`ombe, Isaac Msambalume, Kaluzi Kamangeni, Damison Manyoni (56), Damiano Phiri, 33, and Macdonald Kanyerere,36, all residents of Lilongwe.

The chief suspect in the case Gerald Phiri was already slapped with a 17-year jail term by the Mponela magistrate court after he was found guilty for facilitating the killing of his niece the late Enelesi Nkhata (21 years) who was staying with her grandmother after her parents had divorced.

The court heard that in April 2016, the deceased uncle, Gerald Phiri, agreed with his friend Medison Madzialenga to engage in a business of selling albino bones upon hearing rumors that they fetched a lot of money.

The discussion prompted Phiri to go to Dedza where he had a niece with albinism living with her grandmother whom she took to Dowa where he was staying.

He then communicated to his eight friends who were staying in Area 49 in Lilongwe to come to Madisi in Dowa where they all butchered the young unsuspecting girl in cold blood for her bones.

Speaking in mitigation after pleading guilty to the charge and subsequent conviction, the eight asked the court to exercise lenience when passing judgment piling all the blame on Satan for their evil action.

They also said they found themselves in the evil act because they wanted to find capital to venture into other businesses after getting tired of poverty, before pleading with the court to also consider the fact that they have over-stayed in prison having been remanded in April, 2016.

But state prosecutor assistant superintendent Isaac Kadawayula asked the court to mete out a stiff sentence to the convicts saying what they did was evil and unwelcome behavior in the society.

Making his ruling, principal resident magistrate Patrick Chirwa concurred with the state describing the suspects’ behavior inhumane and against the prevailing norms of society.

He added that people with albinism are also Malawians and have a right to life just as any other person.

He then sentenced the eight men to six years imprisonment with hard labor so as to deter other people from doing the same.

The offence of conspiracy to commit a felony attracts a maximum sentence of Seven years, according to Section 404 of the Penal Code.

Mana/sbn/mtk

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Galumtsukwa
Galumtsukwa
6 years ago

Stupid and corrupt magistrates are really killing our country. And then there is the stupid and corrupt Malawi police. 6 years will translate to 3 years and when you take off the period they were on remand this may as well be a year for killing somebody. Whats wrong with our stupid courts? Is it because these guys do their degrees at Chanco virtually buy coping each other cases that they are too shallow minded to think logically when they are out there to do the job on their own? If Gerald was slapped with 17 years the minimum they… Read more »

Tenzi Mzungu
Tenzi Mzungu
6 years ago

So six years will deter others from committing this kind of offence.Are we serious?Something is wrong. Where are CSOs? You like politics than human rights issues

Uncle B
Uncle B
6 years ago

6 years is 2 small for such an offence. We are talking of butchering an innocent girl by these monsters here. A lot needs to be corrected in our laws

125
125
6 years ago

What’s wrong with our courts? People have murdered a person in cold blood and they are given a lenient 6 years jail term only? Cmon give me a break what’s going on here? 6 years only really? are you encouraging the perpetrators to commit the crime again or what? Or have you been given a bribe or what? What about giving them life imprisonment sentence. Please our president should do something about this we can’t let these people who committed such kind of a barbaric crime and get away with it.

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