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| National |
| Relative sellers plead innocent |
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by
Joseph Langa, 04 December 2002
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Two people arrested in Kasungu recently for attempting to sell their relatives pleaded “not guilty” to the offence when they appeared in court, contrary to police reports that they had admitted the charge during interrogation.
The police said in an interview last week that the two suspects — Davie Phiri, 39, and Matemba Phiri, 42 — admitted in an interview with the police that they wanted to sell their relatives, a sister and an aunt respectively, at K450,000 each to buy food.
The police said Matemba wanted to sell his 20-year-old sister, Enert Phiri, from Kavawa Village, TA Nsinja in Lilongwe, while his co-accused wanted to sell his 23-year-old niece Lufilla Banda from Songiso Village in Sub Chief Chisinga in Kasungu.
Magistrate Jackson Kabwilo said in an interview on Tuesday the accused persons appeared before the court last Thursday afternoon where they pleaded not guilty to the offence of attempting to commit a crime.
Kabwilo said the accused are still on full remand at Kasungu prison because they did not ask the court for bail.
“They didn’t ask for bail and I didn’t remind them about it to guarantee their safety. I thought that because of the nature of the crime they wanted to commit they will be unsafe if they go [out] on bail,” he said.
Kabwilo said the two will appear before the court for a hearing on December 13 when the state is expected to bring some witnesses to testify against them.
The police said the two were arrested while holding discussions with some businessmen at the boma, who they thought would need to use their relatives to boost their businesses through witchcraft.
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