A 48-year-old man has testified in court that he noticed that his late friend’s manhood was missing when he escorted police officers to exhume the remains. James Mwee was testifying before the Kitwe High Court in a case in which Peggy Meleka Kaufman, the wife of the deceased, and Emily Meleka are charged with one count of murder.

It is alleged that between November 1, 2012 and November 24, 2012, Kaufman and Meleka killed Mervin Kaufman. Mr Mwee, of Chingola, told the court on Wednesday that Mr Kaufman was his business partner and friend who confided in him that his wife allegedly wanted to either poison or bewitch him.

He told the court that when he asked Mr Kaufman to tell him why his wife wanted to kill him, he told him that she was upset with him for fathering a child with another woman. Mr Mwee narrated that Mr Kaufman told him that if he had to die, he should inform his relatives about the threats that his wife had made on his life. He said Mr Kaufman also told him that his sister-in-law, Emily, had a fight with the mother of the child he had a child with outside wedlock.

Mr Mwee testified before the court that when Mr Kaufman fell sick, Peggy allegedly blocked him from seeing him.
He said he later started receiving phone calls from people who wanted to confirm Mr Kaufman’s death and that his efforts to get confirmation from  Peggy before his making a trip to Malawi proved futile. He said he only learnt about Mr Kaufman’s death upon returning from Malawi, and that his remains were buried in Kabwe.

Mr Mwee said he then informed Mr Kaufman’s relatives about the threats Peggy had made on her husband’s life, who advised him to report the matter to the police. He said when he tried to report the matter to Chingola Central Police Station, the officers at the station allegedly refused to open a docket and that he decided to report the matter to Ndola Central Police Station.

He said on April 5, 2012, he went with two of his friends and some police officers to exhume Kaufman’s body and discovered that his manhood was missing. “We escorted police officers to have Kaufman’s body exhumed. That is where I saw that he had no manhood and his face also had scars,” Mr Mwee said.

He testified that police officers took pictures of the body while the doctors got samples from his body.
Trial continues.