The convicts leave court for prison after sentencing
The High Court sitting in Nkhata Bay district has sentenced two murderers of Yasin Kwenda Phiri, a person with albinism, to life imprisonment.
The duo: Frank Mkweni Thonje, 21, of Kasoka Village and Bozo Chirwa, 54, of Mundiyeye Villlage, both from Traditional Authority Fukamapiri in the district gruesomely killed Kwenda Phiri during the night of December 31, 2018 in his house at Kande trading centre in the presence of his then 9-year-old son.
According to state advocate, Counsel Waliko Nkosi, the assailants on March 24, 2021 entered into Phiri's bedroom through the window.
They brutally stabbed him twice in the stomach before dragging the body outside where they further chopped his both hands.
Following evidences that the state witnesses presented throughout the court proceedings, Judge Justice Dorothy DE Gabriel was so satisfied that she convicted the two murderers.
The state through Counsel Nkosi lamented the way the convicts committed the offence. He said, the convicts committed the offence in an aggravated manner and that they should suffer death penalty to deter would be offenders.
The convicts through the defence Counsel Kolezi Phiri, in mitigation narrated that his clients are first offenders and that the court should also put into consideration their ages.
The defence Counsel therefore pleaded with the court to pass other forms of punishment other than death penalty.
When passing sentence today, October 20, Justice Chimwemwe Kamowa lamented how gruesome had the convicts committed the offence.
Justice Kamowa further said despite the fact that maximum sentences are reserved for the worst offenders, the act the convicts displayed, was tantamount to being worst offenders as the trauma is still lingering in the son and other persons with albinism.
He also said that one of the convicts being matured enough and also a traditional leader would have taken a leading role in protecting people of this nature.
Through the court discretion, Justice Kamowa ordered the two convicts to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Out of seven suspects who were arrested in connection to Yasin Kwenda Phiri's brutal killing, five were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.