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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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 should have got is 14 years with no option of parole. Am really fuming inside me. These guys did it voluntarily under no duress from Gerald. In fact they had the power to stop it by reporting Gerald to whosoever but they chose to kill the girl. Someone has to review this sentence if we are going to protect our beloved friends with albinism. To the stupid and corrupt magistrate I say shove it.
The stupid police released armed robbers from a certain part of KK after saving 4 years of 13 years sentence! These guys literally butchered their victims in a way that you wouldn’t even butcher a rabid dog. They were ruthless to say the least. Am told they paid K50,000.00 each to get out (a mere k50,000). The worst part of it is that its only one gun they were using which was found/recovered by the police and the other gun is still out there. Malawi Malawi. There are rumors that they are already planning to rob businesses belongs to our Burundian friends in our area. The Police hear this: Should these guys come close to my mothers house I will kill them. And I know how.
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
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
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.