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Blantyre Magistrate’s Court yesterday gave Thom Chiumia and Ken Ndanga one-year suspended sentence and ordered them to pay Emmie Chanika K15,000 compensation each for assaulting her in public at the elections tally centre in Blantyre last year.
Chief Resident Magistrate David Kadwa said the two were charged with an offence he described as a misdemeanour but he would have amended it to assault occasioning actual bodily harm if they had continued to plead not guilty.
Delivering the ruling yesterday, Kadwa agreed with defence lawyer Tamando Chokotho’s submissions that the offence was committed in stimulated circumstances and added that there was no evidence to show that the accused planned to assault the complainant.
“The offence was committed under some extenuating circumstances. Emotions were high as people listened to the poll results. It therefore cannot have been a premeditated offence,” said Kadwa.
He said in giving the sentence, the court considered the injuries and the embarrassment that were caused by the assault and warned the accused not to get involved in wrongful action for the next one year.
“I wish to sternly warn the accused that next time they may not be so lucky as to get away with a sentence of six months imprisonment with hard labour (IHL) suspended for one year. I order that the accused do compensate the complainant with a sum of K15,000 each,” said Kadwa.
Soon after the ruling Chiumia and Ndanga said they were glad that the court had been lenient on them and applauded the judiciary for its independence.
The two were answering a charge of common assault for beating up human rights activist Emmie Chanika at the elections tally centre in Blantyre where results of the May 20 general elections were being announced.
Previously they denied the charge but made a sudden change of heart and pleaded guilty to the charge on Wednesday this week.
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