Malawi: Court Acquits Former President’s Step Son In Human Trafficking Case

By Joseph Dumbula

The High Court in the northern region city of Mzuzu has acquitted Tadikila Mafudza, stepson to former President Peter Mutharika and seven others who were facing charges to do with aggravated human trafficking and manslaughter.

The state however insists it will appeal against the ruling.

The seven were linked to the death of 30 men, believed to be Ethiopian migrants, whose bodies were found in a mass grave in a thick of forest Mtangatanga which lies in the northern region city of Mzuzu.

But on Wednesday, Judge Gladys Gondwe acquitted the eight suspects when she found them with no case to answer.

She told the court that the state did not tender enough evidence in the case.

Gondwe also ordered the state to return vehicles it confiscate and pay back the boils placed on the people’s bail.

Meanwhile, the state has not taken the ruling to heart, with intentions to appeal.

According to Director of Criminal Litigation in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Dzikondiwanthu Malunda, said the state is not satisfied with the ruling.

The bodies of the Ethiopians were discovered buried in a mass grave in Mzimba District in October and the eight had been denying all charges throughout.

Mafubza was acquitted charged together with Samuel Navaya, Duncan Kalulu, David Luhanga, Thomas Dickson Kazembe, Boniface Ngulube, Aubrey Dukes, and Arnold Mwakiyelu.