Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:16:00
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By Daniel Nyirenda
The police Thursday arrested Malswitch boss Grey Nkungula and an auditor at Deloitte & Touche Tapiwa Msisha on allegations of publishing pornographic materials.
Msisha, 46, hails from Lumbezi Village, T/A Kachulu in Rumphi while Nkungula, an information technology expert under the Reserve Bank of Malawi company, is aged 42 and hails from Golova Village, T/A Kuntaja in Blantyre.
Southern Region Police spokesperson Davie Chingwalu confirmed the arrests but said both suspects were released on police bail.
“They have been charged with publication of pornographic materials contrary to the Censorship Act. The man was arrested in the morning while the woman was summoned to the police in the afternoon,” Chingwalu said.
The police publicist said both suspects would appear in court to answer to the charge as soon as the police were through with their investigations.
He said the police would cast the net wider to include vendors whom he said were reproducing and distributing the pornographic material in the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe.
If charged, tried and found guilty, the suspects risk a fine of K1,000 and two years imprisonment.
The arrest of the two comes barely two days after state machineries, the police and the Censorship Board, launched investigations into circumstances surrounding the leakage, sale and ownership of pornographic materials, which were being circulated on the internet.
The materials depicted characters identifying Nkungula and Msisha, both of them married people, having sex and posing in various nude positions in rooms and an office-like place.
Their suspected conduct is regarded as an offence under Section 179 of the Penal Code which, in part, reads: “Any person who makes, produces or has in possession any one or more obscene writings, drawings, prints, paintings, printed matter, pictures, posters, emblems, photographs, photographic negatives or prints, cinematographic films, gramophone records or other contrivances for the production of sound or any other obscene objects or any other objects to corrupt morals; is guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of one thousand kwacha and to imprisonment for a term of two years”.
Blantyre and Lilongwe vendors have copied the digital pornographic photos and video clips and were as of Thursday selling them at as high as K1,000 each compact disc.
People who gave interviews to The Daily Times this week roundly condemned the revelation of the pictures.
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