Postmortem preliminary report says anti-Ansah protester died of infected wounds

An anti-Jane Ansah protester who died in Mzuzu on Thursday died of an infected wounds which were not treated, a preliminary post mortem report on Justin Phiri.

Precious Kondowe, lawyer for Phiri’s family said the wounds were as a result of assault.

“He has died of untreated infected wounds. We have now overwhelming evidence that he was heavily assaulted,” said Kondowe.

Phiri and 18 other were answering inciting violence charges after they were allegedly held an illegal anti-Jane Ansah protest which resulted in scuffles with the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers who assaulted the protesters.

Phiri’s mother said her son died in a police cell after the police removed him from Mzuzu prison following protests over the failure by the law enforcers to bring him to hospital for treatment.

“I do not understand why the police refused to bring him to hospital. My son died in a police cell,” said the mother.

She said Phiri looked after four of her siblings as their father died long ago.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) chairperson for the north Happy Mhango described the death of Phiri as shocking and accused the soldiers of using excessive force on unarmed protesters.

Malawi Human Rights Commission says it is investigating the death.