The Principal Resident Magistrate’s court in Lilongwe on Yesterday Friday, has convicted and sentenced a 41 year-old man and five other to spend 29 and 19 years imprisonment respectively over robbery.
The convicts have been identified as Alex Mponya,41, Kelvin Chirwa, 36, Silvester Mponya, 38, Gift Phiri, 49, Tobias Sendeza, 45, and Alfred Phiri, 53.
Mpoya, has been charged with two counts of robberies with fiver other have been found guilty for single count of the same
Assistant Superintendent Evans Kamtukule, told the court that Alex and company, while armed with dangerous weapons, invaded several lodges and houses in the district where they attacked and hacked people before robbing them of their valuable items and cash.
Separately, on Alex’s second robbery count, the court heard from Assistant Superintendent Richard Kandeya, that the subject committed the offence in 2021 in which his accomplices then, were slapped with a 15-year imprisonment each, but Alex escaped from police custody prior to appearing in court, only to be arrested now.
In mitigation, all the convicts asked for leniency to the court when passing its sentence saying they have families to look after.
But in submission, Lilongwe Police prosecution team told the court that being ex-convicts, the six clearly demonstrated that their initial stay in prison never transformed them into good citizens, hence prayed for deterrent custodial sentences.
Passing sentence, Principal Resident Magistrate Roderick Michongwe, concurred with the State, saying the convicts posed a danger to society, and deserved isolation from the outside world.
Michongwe, then went on to slap all the six convicts with a 19-year imprisonment sentence each, before separately handing an additional 10-year imprisonment to Alex Mponya, on his second count of robbery. His sentences are to run consecutively.
The convicted six criminals were part of a group of 14 notorious suspects Lilongwe Police arrested within the week, for committing a series of robberies.
