Twelve people convicted in connection with the 2018 murder of MacDonald Masambuka, a young man with albinism in Machinga District, will have to wait until June 27 2022 to know their sentences.
This follows High Court of Malawi Judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga’s adjournment of proceedings to June 27 this year for sentencing.
The judge convicted the 12 last month on seven counts of murder, causing harm to a person with disability, causing another person to harm a person with albinism, conducting business in human tissue extracted from a human corpse, extracting human tissue, possession of human tissue and trafficking in person.
The convicts include a Roman Catholic priest Father Thomas Muhosha, police officer Chikondi Chileka, the deceased’s biological brother Cassim Masambuka and Machinga District Hospital clinical officer Lumbani Kamanga.
Yesterday, prosecution and defence legal teams submitted mitigation pleas before the judge in Blantyre.
Representing seven of the convicts, Malawi Legal Aid Bureau deputy director Trouble Kalua pleaded for leniency on the basis that the convicts were first offenders, cooperated during trial and were relatively young.
But senior State advocate Pirirani Masanjala asked the court to give maximum sentences on all seven counts, including life imprisonment for the first count of murder.
In his mitigation, Muhosha, convicted for conducting business in human tissue extracted from a human corpse, pleaded for mercy, saying he is now a changed person.
Masambuka, 22, went missing on March 9 2018 and his body was later found buried in a garden on April 2 2018 near Makawa Village in Senior Chief Mkoola in Machinga.
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