High Court sentences 12 convicts for murdering Masambuka

High Court in Blantyre has on Monday sentenced 12 convicts for brutally murdering a person leaving with Albinism, Macdonald Masambuka in Machinga in March 2018.

Judge passing the sentence, Dorothy Nyakaunda Kamanga sentenced 5 convicts to life imprisonment for found guilty of the murder.

The five are Maxwell Sosola, Dickson Ndengu, Alfred Yohane, Bashir Lilongwe and Cassium White Masambuka.

Other convicts, Clinician Lumbani Kamanga, Master Mphwaluya Injessi, Lackson Magombo and Cassim Masambuka have been sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for the account of causing another person harming persons with disability.

Catholic priest Thomas Mahosha, Police officer Chikondi Chileka, Innocent Walasi have been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for transacting human tissues.

Alfred Yohane, Dickson Ndengu, Bashir Lilingwe, Master Mphulanya Injesi, and Cassimu Masambuka have been charged with multiple accounts of trafficking in persons and transacting in human tissues and they were sentenced with 12 and 30 years imprisonment respectively.

After the sentencing, father to the late Macdonald Masambuka, a man with albinism, says he wishes the court meted out death sentences to those involved in his son’s death.

“I think anyone who deliberately slays another person deserves to die too,” said the 80-year-old father.

Meanwhile, the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) have since commended the court for the sentences, saying they will deter other would-be offenders.