The Principal Resident Magistrate Court sitting in Chikwawa has sentenced an employee of the Lengwe National Park and Wildlife Reserve to seven years imprisonment with hard labour; having convicted him for offering a live pangolin for sale.
Mitigations by the convict Christopher Sailesi that he was a first offender and that he had already spent 11 months on remand, were not enough to sway the court to his advantage.
Principal Magistrate Godfrey Balaka noted in his ruling that the convict had abused his authority, hence a sentence that that would earn him and other aspiring offenders a lesson.
