LILONGWE, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Malawi police have arrested three men for being found in possession of bones believed to be part of the remains of a man with leprosy who died sometime back.
The three were arrested in the eastern district of Machinga barely two weeks after seven men were also arrested in the same district in connection to the brutal killing of a 22-year-old man with albinism, apparently for his body parts.
A statement released Sunday by the district's police spokesperson, Constable Davie Sulumba, said the police received some information on April 11 that a man was keeping human bones and the police followed the tip-off and arrested the suspect.
The arrest of the man led to further arrests of the other two suspects.
The police spokesperson said the bones have since been seized pending examination at the country's College of Medicine to ascertain if they are indeed human bones.
The three face charges of possessing human tissues which contravenes Section 224 of the country's Anatomy Act.
Malawi has since 2014 registered over 150 cases of attacks on people with albinism and during the same period over 20 persons with albinism have been brutally killed for their body parts which some believe are vital for rituals to accumulate wealth.
However, the case at hand involving exhumation of remains of a person who had leprosy is a new trend altogether.
Earlier in the month the United Nations in Malawi strongly condemned the resurfacing of killing of people with albinism in the country describing it as "retrogressive given the achievements made in fighting the same since 2014".
The UN was reacting to the recent brutal killing of the 22-year-old man, Macdonald Masambuka, who went missing early March and his body was later found in April buried in a shallow grave in the eastern district of Machinga.
Malawi president Peter Mutharika has since asked for an honest national dialogue on implementation of a death penalty following the incident, describing it as "depressing development being happening at the time government has made tremendous progress in efforts to stop the barbaric act".
The Association for Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) also registered its concern on the latest development saying capital punishment to the offenders could be the only solution to end the malpractice.
