Misozi Chanthunya appeals
Murder convict Misozi Chanthunya has finally appealed against his conviction and sentencing in a case where he was accused of murdering his girlfriend Linda Gasa.
Chanthunya’s lawyer Michael Goba Chipeta confirmed the development saying Chanthunya is appealing against both his conviction and the life sentence.
The High Court in Zomba handed Chanthunya life imprisonment for Gasa’s murder which happened in 2010.
Chipeta argues that the High Court erred in finding that the circumstantial evidence which was presented in the court against his client proved beyond reasonable doubt that Chanthunya killed Gasa.
On top of life imprisonment, Chanthunya was also sentenced to two years imprisonment for perjury and hindering the burial of a dead body.
Gasa, a Zimbabwean student at Malawi College of Accountancy, went missing in August 2010 before her body was found buried in a bathroom of Chanthunya’s cottage in Mangochi.
Chanthunya reportedly left the country immediately after Gasa’s death before he was arrested by South African police on January 24, 2012.
He was later handed over to Malawi after a protracted extradition battle, on March 1, 2018.
Chanthunya strongly resisted his extradition, saying Malawi still has the death penalty for murder convicts in its laws.
In the course of the trial, one of the state witnesses Jessie Kachale, who claimed to be Gasa’s close friend, told the court in her testimony that the late Gasa had confided in her that she was pregnant for Chanthunya and that he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy.
However, another state witness, Pathologist Charles Dzamalala, told the court in his testimony that after a thorough examination of the late Gasa’s body, he was of the view that she was not pregnant after all.
