The Malawian man who openly boasted of having slept with over 100 widows and underage girls, Eric Aniva also known as “the hyena” will now be tried in a magistrate court in Malawi’s second largest city Blantyre.
Senior magistrate Innocent Nebi told a packed Nsanje Magistrate court that the case moves to Blantyre as from October 5, citing high operations costs as the reason as he has to shuttle from Blantyre to Nsanje and back.
Since the case began, proceedings have been taking place in Nsanje but the state applied for the trial to be shifted to Blantyre. Nebi also pointed out that the shift will allow the state to parade its witnesses on the case who happen to be Blantyre based journalists.
Two police officers on Thursday took to the witness box to give evidence on how they arrested Aniva following his confession on BBC that he slept with widows and girls as young as 12 in a Stone Age ritual cleansing culture.
“The Hyena” has been slapped with two charges including that of practising harmful culture, the Nyasa Times reports.
His lawyer, Michael Goba Chipeta is optimistic that his client will be acquitted since most of the charges against him were allegedly committed before the Gender Act was enacted in 2012.
Aniva is answering the charge of engaging in harmful cultural practices contrary to section 5, sub-section 1 and 2 of the Gender Equality Act of 2013. He faces a maximum of K1 million fine, an equivalent of approximately $1400 and five years in jail if convicted. He was arrested on July 24, 2016 on President Peter Mutharika’s order soon after he confessed that he had been sleeping with over 100 women and girls through sexual cleansing rituals.
