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.