Human rights bodies in the country have exerted pressure on the law enforcers to effect an arrests on former President Peter Mutharika over the murder of MacDonald Masambuka.
The call comes soon after the conviction of those who were involved in the murder and after a High Court Judge wondered why Mutharika and another DPP politician Heatherwick Mtaba were still free yet they were mentioned by those convicted as being sent by the two in 2018 to murder Masambuka.
In separate interviews, the President of the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) Ian Simbota and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) Executive Director Kayiyatsa have challenged law enforcers to rise to the occasion and effect arrests on the two politicians who in 2018 were at the centre of power in the country.
Masambuka, a 22-year-old man with albinism from Machinga, was murdered gruesomely for his body tissues. The police arrested 12 people, who include a Catholic priest, a police officer and a health worker.
However, during the trial, some of the convicts named Mutharika and Ntaba as the ones who sent them to commit the crime.
Despite the stunning revelation, the police never acted on it. During her pronouncement on the case, High Court judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga equally wondered why Mutharika and Ntaba continued enjoying freedom despite being mentioned during the hearing of the case.
Simbota expressed worry that law enforcers continue to drag their feet on the two politicians while Kaiyatsa said police should not fear that this will be taken as witch hunting arguing that their names were mentioned during their rule.
“The court started hearing this case in 2018 when APM was President. So, there’s no case of political witch-hunting here.”
Meanwhile, Simbota and Kaiyatsa challenged both APM and Ntaba to personally take an effort to clear their names before the court.