The Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate Court has sentenced four criminals to up to 10 years in prison for attacking a man at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and robbing him of cash and cellphone.
Blantyre Police deputy spokesperson Sergeant Aubrey Singanyama identified the four as Josephy Jekabu, 40, Arnold Watson, 34, Peter Makawa, 37 and Lyford Bonongwe, 25.
The court heard through state prosecutor Sub Inspector Davie Malithano that the convicts while armed with panga knives on September 26, 2022 at around 1900hrs attacked a certain man at Queens Elizabeth Central Hospital who was coming from his workplace.
The gang went away with a Mobicel cellphone worth K45,000 and K16,000 cash which was found in the victim’s pocket.
The State prosecutor added that the convicts were apprehended the next day at the same place by police detectives after they organised themselves for another attack.
In mitigations, the convicts who pleaded guilty asked for a lenient sentence saying that they all have family obligations.
In his submission, prosecutor Malithano prayed for a stiffer sentence saying that two of the convicts (Jekabu and Makawa) are habitual criminals and were just released from prison after serving a 30 month jail sentence and have been terrorizing people around Chichiri and Kwacha areas.
Passing sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Chipofya concurred with the state.
He therefore sentenced Jekabu and Makawa to 10 years each while Lyford Bonongwe and Arnold Watson were sentenced to 8 years imprisonment with hard labour each for being first offenders.
Meanwhile, the 4 convicts are also answering another charge of robbery which they committed in the same area.
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