Malawi Congress Party (MCP) MP, Wali Nasser Kara, was...

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) MP, Wali Nasser Kara, was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of murdering his driver, Alex Mbewe, on 6 March, 2002, in the central sugarcane growing area of Dwangwa.
Nine of 11 members of the jury, sitting in a packed courtroom in the central district of Salima, 125 kilometres west of the capital Lilongwe, found Nasser Kara guilty of the offence.
High court judge Dial Kumange upheld the sentence.
Kara had pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder, while his two bodyguards - Phillip Singo and Charles Kulemekea - pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The bodyguards told the court that they had not participated in the murder of Mbewe, but that they saw the MP kill him and that they put his body into the boot (trunk) of the car at Kara's orders.
Singo said the MP promised them 1,000 US dollars to lie that it was they and not Kara who killed the driver. Kara had been arrested the previous week after he flouted his bail conditions which required him to report to police at least twice a week.
Prosecutors said the MP could also face a fresh charge of murdering his wife, who has been officially reported missing.
The charge of alleged murder of his wife can only be brought to court after seven years have elapsed, according to Malawi laws.
Kara is the first lawmaker to be sentenced to death. He has automatically lost his parliamentary seat because of the conviction.
His lawyer Ralph Kasambara told AFP by telephone that "we are considering appealing because this is a travesty of justice as all evidence tendered in court could not be corroborated."
President Bakili Muluzi has commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment since he came to power in 1994, following the country's first democratic elections.
Muluzi, credited for improving human rights in the country after three decades of dictatorial rule by Kamuzu Banda, has vowed never to uphold a death sentence.