BLANTYRE, 19 June 2004 — A Malawian court has sentenced three men to 20 months in jail for beating two Muslim leaders who asked them not to take part in protests after the deportation of five Al-Qaeda suspects, a court official said yesterday.
A magistrate’s court in the northern town of Mzuzu on Wednesday sentenced Burton Tambala, 30, Khoba Lajabu, 30, and Lifa Binali, 35, for beating up two leaders of the influential Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) last year, the official said.
Violent protests broke out after the impoverished southern African country arrested and deported five men to the United States on suspicion of being involved in a local Al-Qaeda cell.
The court found that Abdullah Kalisinje and Daud Abbasi suffered deep cuts on the head when they were attacked after pleading with Muslims in Mzuzu, some 360 km from Blantyre, not to take part in the protests.
“We were beaten like monkeys who had stolen maize from a garden for merely telling them not to join the violence Muslims were involved in elsewhere,” Abbasi told the court earlier.
“The issue was about Al-Qaeda. We as leaders have sleepless nights over the violence that was going on,” he said.
