Africa-Press – Mozambique. A Malawian court has sentenced three Mozambican citizens to life imprisonment, following their arrest 18 months ago, in the economic hub of Blantyre, in possession of body parts from a person who was suffering from albinism, Radio Mozambique reported on Friday.
Faruque Wilson from Alto Molocue district, and Joao Pilirane and Matias Jassitene both from Milange district, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, along with a Malawian woman friend, were arrested by the authorities carrying body parts of an albino.
The woman (not named in the report) had allegedly lured the trio to desecrate graves and mutilate bodies by promising huge amounts of money if they managed to find body parts of albinos, which would be sold in Malawi. So they dug up graves in Milange and ferried the body parts to Blantyre to sell them to their Malawian friend.
But the owner of the house where the three stayed in Malawi became suspicious and called the police who immediately rushed to the place and arrested them. They were then held in custody at Chichiri prison in Blantyre.
The convicted Mozambicans have already lodged an appeal, so that they can serve their jail terms in Zambezia. They now have to await the judge’s decision which will be announced within a fortnight.
However, the appeal may not be granted, taking into account that Mozambique has no life sentence and the prisoner exchange agreement between the two countries has not yet been ratified.
