Sex offence convict freed after appeal
The High Court in Zomba has set free Chakana who was convicted and sentenced to six years for having sex with a minor
man who was serving a six-year prison sentence after being convicted of having sexual intercourse with a girl believed to be under 18 years has been freed after winning an appeal at the High Court in Zomba.
The court overturned the conviction and sentence of 25-year-old Francis Elesson Chakana after finding that the State failed to prove that the girl was below 18 years old when the alleged offence happened.
Chakana was convicted by a Magistrate’s Court last year and sentenced to six years imprisonment. Through the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB), he appealed the decision, asking the High Court to review the conviction.
Chakana’s lawyer, Collen Nyirenda, argued that the prosecution failed to provide documentary evidence confirming the girl’s age.
Nyirenda said the defence later obtained the girl’s national identity card, which showed that she had already turned 18 at the time of the alleged offence.
Following the evidence, High Court Judge Dick Sankhulani ruled that the conviction could not stand and quashed both the guilty verdict and the six-year prison sentence.
The ruling clears Chakana of the conviction after the court found that a key element of the case, the complainant’s age, had not been proven.
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