{"id":73342,"date":"2025-09-16T08:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot"},"modified":"2025-09-16T08:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:57:19","slug":"five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot","title":{"rendered":"Five Men Plead Not Guilty to Election Sabotage Plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>Five men accused of plotting to sabotage Malawi\u2019s 2025 General Elections by staging violent attacks and obstructing the movement of ballot papers have pleaded not guilty before the Lilongwe Resident Magistrate\u2019s Court.<\/p>\n<p>The suspects, who were arrested on September 13, face two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony under Section 404 of the Penal Code. Prosecutors allege they used a social media platform called Political Debate to coordinate plans targeting major markets in Lilongwe, including Mchesi, Chinsapo, Mtsiriza, Mtandire, and Kauma.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, the group also intended to block vehicles transporting ballot papers from the eastern and southern regions to the national tally centre in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n<p>The accused have been identified as Geoffrey Kamanyengo, 49, from Ntcheu; Fanwick Kerodi, 52, from Mulanje; Lodwell Ligomeka, 51, and John Grevulo, 43, both from Blantyre; and Upile Mkulumba, 41, from Machinga.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a sixth suspect, believed to be the mastermind of the operation, Winstone Cassam, remains at large.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Malawi<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. Five men accused of plotting to sabotage Malawi\u2019s 2025 General Elections by staging violent attacks and obstructing the movement of ballot papers have pleaded not guilty before the Lilongwe Resident Magistrate\u2019s Court. The suspects, who were arrested on September 13, face two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony under Section 404 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":73341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[254,533,251,234,568],"class_list":["post-73342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-crime","tag-elections","tag-lilongwe","tag-malawi","tag-police"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Five Men Plead Not Guilty to Election Sabotage Plot - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Five men accused of plotting to sabotage Malawi\u2019s 2025 General Elections by staging violent attacks and obstructing the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Men Plead Not Guilty to Election Sabotage Plot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five men accused of plotting to sabotage Malawi\u2019s 2025 General Elections by staging violent attacks and obstructing the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-16T08:55:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-16T08:57:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2025\/09\/sm_1758000585.137126.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Five Men Plead Not Guilty to Election Sabotage Plot\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-16T08:55:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-16T08:57:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\"},\"wordCount\":173,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2025\/09\/sm_1758000585.137126.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Crime\",\"elections\",\"Lilongwe\",\"Malawi\",\"police\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/five-men-plead-not-guilty-to-election-sabotage-plot\",\"name\":\"Five Men Plead Not Guilty to Election Sabotage Plot - 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