High Court Judge Justice Professor Redson Kapindu has sentenced a Malawian of Asian origin, Zaeshan Jaral Raja to a 30-year jail term for defilement and another 20 years for abduction.

The convict was appealing against an earlier sentence of a 16-year jail term by a lower court.

Raja, in 2017, abducted a girl child and defiled her repeatedly before hiding her in a fridge when her parents and the police were looking for her after going missing.

Newly promoted High Court Judge, Agnes Patemba while serving as a Chief Resident Magistrate at Zomba registry, convicted and sentenced him to a 16-year jail term for defilement and 8 years for abduction which the convicted appealed at the High Court.

Delivering his ruling on Friday, Kapindu also ordered the department of Immigration to send him back to his home country, Pakistan at the end of his custodial sentence.