The Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate court has convicted and sentenced five men to pay a sum of K1.2 million each for entering into a protected forest reserve without permit, cutting or destroying forest produce, engaging in the production of charcoal, and conveying prohibited weapon into a protected forest reserve.

The convicts have been identified as Kondwerani Epulani, 21, Kendal Maliati, 34, Chakumanda Paulo, 35, Anderson Chiyabwe, 39, and Jali Magombo, 47, all from Traditional Authority Masumbankhunda in the district.

Lilongwe Police Prosecutor Sub Inspector Damiano Nyasulu told the court that the convicts committed the offences on October 13, 2023 in Dzalanyama Forest Reserve.

Nyasulu further said that the convicts were apprehended by a team of forest reserve officers who were doing routine patrols in the area.

By the time the convicts were being apprehended, they had already taken down two masuku, two mtondo, three mchisu, and five mlombwa trees, all valued at K21 million. They were also found with already produced charcoal.

In court, the five men pleaded guilty to all the four counts leveled against them, and prayed for leniency when passing sentence saying they did not know that what they were doing in the forest reserve was an offence.

They also told the court that they have families that depend on them as bread winners.

However, the State through Nyasulu, asked the court for a stiffer penalty to the convicts citing the seriousness of the offences in as far as rapid deforestation of the country’s forest reserves is concerned.

Passing his sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Wanangwa Nyirenda concurred with the State, while quashing the mitigating factors saying the convicts themselves could have thought of the consequences in the first place before committing such serious offences.