A renowned pathologist Professor George Liomba on Tuesday told the High Court sitting in Mzuzu that the 30 victims whose bodies were found in a mass grave in Mzimba district’s Mtangatanga forest died of suffocation due to carbon monoxide.
As the State’s fifth witness, Liomba was testifying before justice Gladys Gondwe in a case which former President Peter Mutharika’s stepson, Tadikira Mafubza and seven others are answering aggravated manslaughter and trafficking in persons charges.
The seven others are Samuel Navaya, David Luhanga, Thomson Kazembe, Ducnam Kalulu, Boniface Ngulube, Aubrey Dukes and Arnold Mwakiyelo.
Liomba, who nearly turned the courtroom into a pathology class, said upon the invitation of a fellow pathologist Dr Charles Dzamalala, his duty was to establish the cause of death as well as the number of the days the deceased had been dead.
He said from the 30 bodies that were discovered, only 5 were examined as all the dead bodies shared similar common features like height, slim male adults between the ages of 24 and 45 and were all covered in red clay soil like that of Mtangatanga forest.
According to Liomba, their findings established that the bodies had no food or fluids in their stomachs and they had high concentration of carbon monoxide.
“This therefore led to the conclusion that the deceased died of suffocation due to inhaling carbon monoxide and that the bodies had been in the forest for about 4 to 5 days,” he said
During cross-examination by lawyer Kolezi Phiri for the third accused person David Luhanga, Liomba had the courtroom in stitches when he was asked to explain the source of the carbon monoxide, to which he responded that “I don’t know because I was not there when they were inhaling it”.
He further said he concluded that suffocation was due to carbon monoxide because some body tissues showed typical sign of the condition which is cherry color.
Asked Phiri; “Do you agree with me that there are other diseases or factors that can cause tissues to turn into that color?
“My Lady, I do not want to turn this court into a pathology lecture, cherry color change is caused by carbon monoxide,” he said
Earlier on, fourth witness, Baxter Mkumbwa, a Criminal investigation officer for Mzimba Police Station told the court after thoroughly canvasing the crime scene, they collected some items like a piece of metal believed to be from a vehicle that transported the deceased, a money transfer document, documents bearing foreign phone numbers, a wrist watch and other identification documents all from Ethiopia.
The case has been to November 28, 2023 and will run for three days where the State is expected to parade more witnesses.
On October last year, the remains of 30 people who are allegedly Ethiopian nationals have been exhumed from a grave located within Mtangatanga Forest Reserve.
Police said all victims were male aged between 25 and 40.
Official records indicate that a majority of migrants who are caught in Malawi use the country as a transit point with their final destinations mostly being South Africa, Europe or the US.
In 2022 alone, over 221 migrants have been intercepted and 186 of them were Ethiopian nationals.
