Metro

Malawi Court sentences 12 people including Catholic Priest to death for killing albino

Published

1 year ago

April 30, 2022

A Malawian High Court has sentenced 12 people, including a Catholic Priest and a police officer, to death for the 2018 killing of a 22-year-old albino man.

The convicts which also included the victim’s brother, were found guilty by
Judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga, of kidnapping the deceased and killing him before selling his body parts to ritualists.

The conviction of the accused on Friday, according to Malawi officials, was just one out of many cases where more than 170 albinos have been attacked in the country since 2014 by people who believe their body parts bring luck and wealth.

Some of those convicted by Judge Kamanga were Rev. Father Thomas Muhosa, a Catholic priest, Chikondi Chileka, a police officer, Lumbani Kamanga, and the deceased’s brother, Cassim Masambuka, as well as eight others who bought the severed parts of the victim.

The charges against them included murder, extracting human tissues, causing harm to a person with disability, and trafficking in persons.

In sentencing the accused, the judge said the state had proven beyond reasonable doubt they had conspired to kill Masambuka to extract his bones based on a perception they would benefit financially.

She said Masambuka was a victim of violent attacks on persons with albinism who have not been adequately protected by the co6.

Masambuka went missing from his village on March 9, 2018, and his limbless body was found buried in a garden on April 2, 2018, in his home district of Machinga south of Malawi.

Court documents show that Masambuka was enticed by his iwn6 brother to meet his friends, who he claimed had found a girl for him to marry.

“But when they reached the scene, the alleged friends grabbed Masambuka by the neck and dragged him to a garden where they killed him. Here, his assailants cut off his limbs, burned his body using petrol and buried it there,” the court heard.

Related Topics:Albino Featured Malawi Murder

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Metro

Rwandan President, Kagame sacks over 200 military personnel in major shake-up

Published

20 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame has sacked over 200 soldiers including top military brass and commanders from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) in a massive shake-up.

The dismissed officers include the former Commander of the Reserve Forces, Maj. Gen. Aloys Muganga, and Brig. Gen. Francis Mutiganda, a former Head of External Security in the National Intelligence Services, as well as 14 senior officers.

The announcement of the sacking of the officers which was contained in a statement released by the RDF on Wednesday, did not give reason for the sackings, but the move come a day after the president reshuffled the top echelon of the country’s military, which saw the firing of the Defence Minister and an Army Chief.

The sacking of the soldiers has further heightened tension between Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, with each side accusing the other of working with rebels to topple one another’s governments, according to reports in local media.

Metro

UN war crimes court declares Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial

Published

20 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

An 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga has been declared unfit to stand trial by judges at a United Nations War Crimes Court in The Hague.

In a decision published by the court on Wednesday, the judges acknowledged that Kabuga was no longer able to actively participate in his trial, and rather proposed an alternative process that aims to resemble a trial but does not allow for a conviction instead of stopping the proceedings completely.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” the publication said.

“The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, therefore, finds that Mr. Kabuga is not fit for trial and is very unlikely to regain fitness in the future.

“It is therefore agreed to adopt an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction,” it added.

Kabuga who was arrested in Paris where he had been in hiding under a false identity for several years, was one of the most wanted suspects of the Rwandan genocide, and was charged at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with genocide and crimes against humanity.

At his initial arraignment in September last year, the ICC heard that Kabuga was alleged to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu militias who slaughtered over 800,000 minority Tutsis as well as political opponents during the genocide in 1994.

According to the UN, Kabuga, a wealthy businessman from the Hutu ethnic group, had established and financed an infamous media outfit, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was notorious for inciting violence and promoting the targeting and elimination of individuals from the Tutsi ethnic group who were referred to as “Cockroaches”.

Kabuga was arrested in Paris in 2020 after decades on the run and sent for trial in The Hague where he pleaded not guilty to charges of sponsoring the infamous Hutu radical radio station urging people to kill Tutsi “cockroaches”.

He also denied supplying machetes and supporting the murderous Interahamwe Hutu militia.