Malawi Court convicts Chanthunya over Zimbabwean female student Linda Gasa murder

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—High Court in Zomba has convicted Misozi Chanthunya after finding him guilty of murdering Zimbabwean girl, Linda Gasa, in 2010.

Reading a judjement, Judge Ruth Chinangwa said Chanthunya was responsible for the death of Gasa at his family’s private cottage in Monkey Bay, Mangochi, where the body was found entombed under concrete.

Chanthunya, who fled to South Africa before he was extradited back to Malawi a few years ago to answer the murder charges, is allegedly to have been in a serious relationship with the Zimbabwean girl who was by then studying at Malawi College of Accountancy.

During the court’s proceedings, the State’s first witness, Jessie Kachale, told the court that she last spoke to the deceased on August 4 2010 at around 6pm.

She told the court that Gasa was her sister-in-marriage.

However, Kachale lined up the events that happened between the day when the deceased went missing to her burial day.

Among other things, the witness told the court that police assisted them to discover the body of the late Gasa.

Kachale, who was in tears, also said that Gasa’s body was buried in Zimbabwe and it was in a decomposed state.

Judge Chinangwa is expected to sentence Chanthunya next week Wednesday.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).