September 2007
Murder Suspects Remanded Over One year
By Madube Pasi Siyauya
TWO residents of Batoka remanded at Choma Remand Prison since July 2006 have only appeared in court once a year after their arrest.
Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) paralegal who visited Choma prison said that it was sad that remandees had to wait that long before they appeared in court.
Mexico Syadwele, 28, and Kelvin Chipeta, 38, of Batoka were arrested in connection with the murder of an eight-year-old girl, a cousin to Mexico.
Facts are that on January 31, 2006 Mexico's wife sent his cousin to take food for him at a shop belonging to a Ghanaian national Francline Ajhapong. The girl is believed not to have returned home after that. But after 17:00 hours when the girl failed to return home, his wife made a follow up at the shop where she was told that the girl just left the food and went away.
The family then looked for the girl and reported the matter to the police. The funeral for the missing girl was held at Mexico's home.
On February 6 2006 Kelvin went to Mexico's home. Kelvin told Phiri that he had gone there because the cell phone they were using at the shop was giving them problems and Mexico who was not working at the time due to the funeral was the one who knew how to use it well.
Mexico and Kelvin walked away from the funeral house in search of a place were the phone could pick the network.
The due claimed when they were going to search for network, near the path they saw a lot of fries and when they went near, they found the body of the mission girl.
They reported the matter to the police and the following day, the duo was arrested in connection to the murder of the girl.
The duo told Phiri that from the time they were arrested they were taken to Monze police where they stayed for a long time. They were then taken to Pemba police station where they spent a long time until July 17,2007 when they were taken to Choma police.
They were remanded for 17 days before they were remanded at Choma prison. From the time of the arrest, the duo only appeared for mention in July 2007.
Phiri made a follow up at the police and an officer he could not name
They said the officers were being visited by their boss Ajhapong while in detention at Choma police station.
During the visits, the police allowed the suspects to leave the cells to go and have a bath. This treatment is not accorded to other suspects. The officers also cautioned Phiri to inspect Kelvin's arms. When Phiri made a follow up with the prosecutor, Inspector Mbonge, he said he did not understand why the docket for Mexico and Kelvin had taken so long to go to court. She was later told that the matter was referred to Livingstone.
Phiri made another follow up at the prison were after inspecting Kelvin's arms found that he had tattoos of a coffin and a danger sign of a human skull and two bones crossing each other, as the ZESCO power installations would show. He also had a head of a lion engraved on the other arm.
When Phiri asked Kelvin why he put such tattoos on his arms, Kelvin told her that those tattoos were engraved on him when he was a child and he did not know who did that.
Phiri said she was also informed at prison that Ajhopong was the duo' next of kin and the only one who visited them in prison on a regular basis.
Phiri said as bizarre as these men's case might be, it did not justify the State detaining them for such a long time without trial.