The Chairperson of the National Technical Committee on the Abuse of Persons with Albinism in Malawi proposes death penalty as a deterrent to the unending attacks and killings of persons with albinism in the country and that President Peter Mutharika has never spoke against the death penalty.
Speaking on Wednesday evening in Lilongwe to update the nation on the status of the atrocities against persons with albinism, the Committee’s Chairperson, Dr. Hetherwick Mtaba pleaded with courts to pass death sentences to attackers.
“The death penalty is already there for people who have killed others. If you talk about person who has brutally, gruesomely killed a person with albinism, definitely the death penalty has already been in existence.” Noted Mtaba
He then continued to warn that; “The would be offender’s must know that the honeymoon is over. They are the ones who will end up being hunted by the law and will face the death sentence or rot in jail under a life sentence.
We are asking the courts to pass the death or life sentences where they are provided for. Such tough sentences must be imposed to deter would be criminals. The brutal and gruesome killers must face death sentences. The death penalty for such murderers already exists in our law books.”
Asked if the recent calls by President Mutharika for Malawians to desist from using mob justice when they arrest a suspect on these evil attacks, Mtaba was quick to clarify that such remarks were only calling people to let courts make proper justice.
“I think the president is saying; rather than impose mob justice to them, take them to police and let the proper will of justice turn on them.” He said, “I don’t think that’s saying that we don’t want death sentence to be on these particular people.”
Then Mr. Mtamba emphasised that “The death sentence is still on the law books it can be imposed.” However, he said it is discretion of courts to choose whether impose life sentence or death sentence, but further warned that “we want the public and these would be offenders to know is that death sentence is there they can meet them. Some of us hope that they need that death sentence as a punishment to make sure that we put an end to these very frustrating matter.”
Touching on the fresh case which happened on July 16, 2016, where an innocent and brave woman with albinism in Chitipa who fought against her attackers in her own house around 3 am, Mtaba assured the Nation that police are working around the clock to arrest the attackers. He said the two of the attackers who are on the run were Tanzanian nationals and one Malawian suspected to have aided the attack has been arrested.
But the attackers managed to chop her right hand off and fingers from the other hand. Her elderly husband was knocked unconscious but she fought these attackers off until her husband regained consciousness and joined the struggle.
Mtaba also emphasised that each Malawians must take lead in protecting persons with albinism; “Let us change the social climate so that persons with albinism no longer live in fear. Instead it should be the killers and attackers who must be hunted by all of us to face death or life sentence in courts. The only safe place where such killers can exist should be inside the prison where the angry crowds cannot get to them.
We must be suspicious of irregular movements of adults escorting children with albinism, because some of these atrocities are being facilitated by close relatives. We are responsible for the protection of especially child victims from these atrocities.”
In a bid to end these attacks, Parliament recently passed two bills, Anatomy Amendment Act and Penal Code Act amendment which are imposing life sentences without option of fine. Government also directed that cases related to attacks and killings of persons with albinism must be handled by professional magistrates or high courts to ensure proper prosecution and sentencing.
Further, there are now two special prosecutors at Ministry of Justice where one is responsible for speeding up the prosecution process while the other is examining the past sentences for leniencies with a view to appeal for stiffer penalties where possible. In addition, Ministry of Justice is studying the law that regulates the practice of Traditional Healers so that the law should criminalize the use of Charms from human body parts by fortune tellers and anyone else.
People can also report cases of any attacks on persons with albinism for free by calling 772 on TNM numbers and police will respond quickly.
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