By Pemphero Malimba:
The High Court sitting in Lilongwe Thursday sentenced Anne Debre Mumba to 53 years in prison after finding her guilty of murdering husband Professor Peter Mumba.
Professor Mumba, who died on April 25 2020, was until his death working as chemistry professor at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar).
In his sentence, High Court Judge Mzonde Mvula described the professor’s death as an unnatural one.
According to Mvula, aggravating factors far outweigh mitigating factors for the convict.
“It is not rocket science to observe if one is still alive. Her conduct, her demeanor generally and extenuating circumstances align to this. Little no wonder it took more than 20 minutes to move the body from the bedroom to landing to board [a vehicle] to the hospital because she was buying time.
“The records confirm that there was no bleeding from vital organs as is synonymous with hypertension death. It was not surprising when hospital attendants sat and just observed the body this night, when you took it to them by car, which her own daughter kept referring to as the body during her testimony.
“To allege unusual coolness of the body came because windows were down when you drive to [the] hospital is clutching at straws. You knew that Professor Mumba was dead,” he said.
He also wondered why others were pressing for a postmortem of the professor’s body while Annie was mute on the same.
“She would have been the first to sanction a postmortem. She did not. She was quick to run from the burial site returning from Mzimba on the same day of burial, citing safety concerns when there was no threat.
“This is unheard of in our Malawian custom [especially] upon the death of the spouse. Indeed, the guilty are always afraid,” he said.
He said the death was a calculated one, such that Annie was supposed to pay for it.
“Having balanced the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, a sentence which makes him grieve your error of judgement and deter others is a fine balance. I sentence you Anne Debre Mumba to 53 years imprisonment with hard labour effective your date of arrest.
“By (the) grace of the Creator you will reform and come out of prison a changed person should you survive this sentence,” he said.
He further ruled that she had 30 days to appeal the judgement and sentence.
Anne Mumba’s lawyer Innocent Kubwalo said the defence would appeal her conviction.
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