The first grade magistrate court in Lilongwe has sentenced five men to three years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing goods worth K23 million in October last year during anti-Jane Ansah demonstrations.
According to the deputy spokesperson for Lilongwe Police, Foster Benjamin, the ruling was delivered on Friday 17 January, 2020.
Benjamin further said that all the five convicts hail from Lilongwe, basically from Msundwe and M’bwatalika communities.
On the day of the crime, the five joined the anti-Jane Ansah demonstrations organized by Human Rights Defenders Coalition but later left their fellow protesters at Bwandilo and went to Area 15 in Lilongwe where they broke into and looted a shop and saloon.
Presiding over the case, Magistrate Diana Mangwana said such kind of vandalism affect a country economically.
“Looting chokes the economic life of any country,” said Mangwana.
Mangwana added that the conviction of the five will deter would be offenders.
