By DELPHINE ZULU –

TWO brothers have been sentenced to death for axing their 75-year-old father to death and later burying him in a shallow grave after a land dispute.

Lusaka High Court judge Christine Phiri said it was a pity that the duo killed their own father “like a snake” without any remorse, especially that he was an old man who could not defend himself.

Ms Justice Phiri said there was overwhelming evidence that the two brothers murdered their father because they were found with a used hoe, axe and a shovel by their step-mother immediately after burying him.

She said the evidence was confirmed by police after retrieving the body which was found with deep cuts on the head, chest, and back.

The deceased’s body was also found with bruises with blood coming out of the nose, mouth and ears.

This was in a matter in which Adam Bweupe, 17, a Grade Seven pupil at Ngwerere Primary School, and Dennis Bweupe, 22, a general worker, both of Lusaka’s Mtendere Township, were facing one count of murder contrary to Section 200 of the Laws of Zambia.

Particulars were that the duo jointly and whilst acting together did murder Lawrence Kasembe Bweupe at his 10 miles farm near Kabangwe area on October 8, 2011 and later buried him in a shallow grave at a nearby farm.

“For the foregoing, I am satisfied that the prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt, and I sentence the accused persons to death, to be hanged by their neck until pronounced dead by a qualified medical officer,” Ms Justice Phiri said.

She said she found that the actions of the convicts were premeditated as it was clear that they beat up their father to death, buried him in a shallow grave and later entered into the deceased’s house where they took his documents which he normally kept in his bedroom and vanished.

Evidence before court was that the duo on the material day went to their father’s house around 19:00 hours and found him alone.

They then decided to go to the orchard where they asked someone nearby to call their father, and when he followed them they started interrogating him over the piece of land he had sold to the neighbours.

After they differed, the convicts tied Mr Bweupe’s legs and hands and started beating him using a shovel, hoe and axe.

They later dug a shallow grave and buried him, and they placed a lot of dry grass on his grave to hide it.

Their step- mother, Tina Phiri Bweupe, 39, said when she returned home from town where she had gone to buy relish she was made to sit outside her house because she did not know where her husband had gone.

A few minutes later she saw her two step-sons carrying an axe, a hoe and shovel approaching the house.

When she asked where their father was, they said he was the one who gave them tools to use for some work they found at Precem Motel and that he had left in an unknown taxi.