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The High Court in Blantyre is today expected to hear defense from a Catholic Priest father Thomas Muhosha over his alleged involvement in the murder of MacDonald Masambuka a person with albinism.
Yesterday, the court resumed hearing defense from the accused persons who were found with a case to answer.
The 4th accused person Alfred Yohane implicated Muhosha in the murder saying the catholic priest gave him a contract from top government officials to find bones of a person with albinism.
BACKGROUND
Late Masambuka – a person with albinism, was found dead on April, 01st, 2018 and buried within the district after he was reported missing in March that year.
In the wake of his killing, Police arrested nine suspects including a catholic Priest Thomas Muhosha among others.
The twelve were later in 2019 on January 28th found with murder cases to answer over the death of the Masambuka.
Having moved to the Blantyre High Court from Zomba, the case resumed this week; and on the fourth day of hearing, the police have been criticised for being too harsh for the suspects.
So far, three accused persons, Dickson Manesi Ndengu, Bashir Lilongwe and Alfred Yohane have in their defence told the court some of the people answering the charges were not involved in the murder.
The three went further to accuse the police of burning them with irons to force them to implicate innocent people.
The case is continuing a month after another court in Mchinji district sentenced three people for killing a person with albinism and a similar case in Thyolo district in May this year.
The rulings come when the legal fraternity has been making miscellaneous arguments on whether having a stern death sentence would deter would be offenders of such atrocities.
Previously, lawyers for the accused persons have also asked the court to allow them to access call logs from TNM which they intend to use as part of evidence in court.
In an interview with MIJ Online, one of the state lawyers, Pilirani Masanjala said the state was so far happy with the progress of the case.
According to the Amnesty International just 30% of attacks on persons with albinism have been properly investigated. Of 163 cases reported in the country since November 2014, 22 have been murders.
