Mob justice still rampant: another thief beaten to death

An angry mob at Guliguli village in Lilongwe has beaten to death a man who wanted to steal goats in the village.

The thief wanted to steal the goats at the house of Group Village Headman Guliguli.

According to Lilongwe police spokesperson Kingsley Dandaula, the group village headman whose name is Jeremiah Gaston was awoken by a strange sound at around 1am on Tuesday and went to check as to what was happening.

When the suspect realized he had been discovered, he started running away with Gaston chasing after him. However, when he was about to be caught, the thief threatened to kill his pursuant.

This prompted Gaston to shout for help and people responded by flocking to the scene. When they caught the thief, the community members beat him up and he sustained severe head injuries and died.

The spokesperson said the crime scene was visited by police and medical personnel from Kabudula Community. Postmortem results confirmed that death was due to severe head injuries.

The thief was subsequently buried without being identified.

“The deceased was never identified and any follow up as to who might have been his accomplices, if he had any, will be difficult to establish. If such could be the case, these accomplices would still be engaging in criminal activities in their communities,” said Dandaula.

Meanwhile, Dandaula has asked Malawians to refrain from taking the law into their own hands saying it is a known fact that mob justice is against the law hence any suspect caught must be taken to police for further investigations and relevant sentencing in the courts of law.