By MAYA NTANDA –
THE Kitwe High Court has sentenced two men of Kitwe, one of them a student, to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour for taking turns in raping a 30-year-old woman.
High Court Judge-In- charge Catherine Makungu sent to jail Geoffrey Lwenje, 26, and Mbulo Mumena, 20, both of Ndeke Village after she convicted them of rape.
Ms Justice Makungu said she had considered Lwenje and Mumena’s mitigation that they were remorseful about their actions and were first offenders when slapping them with the 15-year jail term.
The duo took turns in having sex with a woman without her consent on March 24, 2014.
The victim had testified that on the material day around 15:00 hours, she received a phone call from her boyfriend to visit him in Ndeke Village.
She told the court that she met her boyfriend at a drinking place where he was a barman and when it was getting late, they organised a back-room to rest while she waited for him to knock off.
The couple heard noise from outside and later four men forced their way in and started beating her boyfriend.
The victim testified that the assailants forced her boyfriend out of the room and informed him that the victim was their wife.
She told the court that all the four men took turns in raping her.
The accused were apprehended by members of the crime prevention unit who took them to the police station while the other two escaped.
In mitigation, Lwenje asked for leniency and that he was a student at the Zambia Institute of Business Studies and Industrial Practice (ZIBSIP) while Mumena said he was an orphan who was looking after his siblings.