Judgement in Benos murder case deferred

By NATION REPORTER JUDGEMENT in a case in which Lusaka businesswoman, Tshiabu Benos, is accused of killing Auto Force proprietor, Reeves Malambo, has been rescheduled to June 28 2018.

Yesterday Lusaka High Court in charge Gertrude Chawatama failed to deliver the long awaited judgement with reason that she needed time to study the State’s final submissions in the case.

“Judgment is not ready to be delivered today because the court only got sight of the prosecutions final submissions on Wednesday. However, I will adjourn the matter to June 28 2018,” judge Chawatama said.

Benos 38, is alleged to have stabbed her lover, Mr Malambo, 48, with a knife (dagger) after a fight at her home in Ibex Hill.

During her trial with 18 witnesses, Benos asked the court to find her guilty of manslaughter only and not murder as she killed out of provocation.

In her final submissions, Benos through her lawyer Humphry Mweemba argued that she did not deny stabbing Mr Malambo but did so out of self defence.

“I do not deny that I stabbed Mr Malambo but I did so with the intention of protecting myself from severe injuries having being roughly and brutally treated by the deceased ,” Benos indicated.

Benos argued that on the date in question, Mr Malambo viciously attacked and violently beat her and that it was in the process of the attack that she stabbed him.

She argued that the stab was inevitable in the circumstance.

“To stab a person is unlawful, unless it appears the stabbing was justifiable in the exercise of right of self-defense,” she indicated.

Meanwhile, the state argued that Beno’s account of events was an afterthought and therefore she should be convicted of murder. It was the state’s argument that they would depend on the testimony of Beno’s maid Tamara Mswana who testified that she heard her boss shouting at Mr Malambo saying “iwe Reeves wachilamo kunimenya ine, manje nizakupaya”, meaning “it is too much of you Reeves beating me, so/now I will kill you”.

They argued that there is no other explanation for Beno’s utterances other than the fact that they were pure manifestations of her intention to cause Mr Malambo’s death.

“The unlawful act of stabbing Mr Malambo with a dagger in the chest wall comes within the ambit of an intention to do grievous harm and Benos ought to have known.

The state argued that it had induced sufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt Benos committed murder and asked the court to make its findings.