Men arrested for smuggling corpse

TWO men from Chiredzi District in Masvingo were last week arrested after they allegedly smuggled a corpse into the country from Mozambique through an illegal point at Chisuma along the border in Chipinge.

Tsengai Shate (34) of Section 6, Triangle and Jacob Mutanda (45) of Mapanza farm, Mkwasine are facing charges of violating laws of repatriation of bodies. Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed the incident.

"Sometime in 2014 Shate and his wife had relocated to Mozambique where they had acquired a piece of land but however, Shate later got a job at Triangle and would visit his family in Mozambique. On 19 February Shate received a message alerting him that his wife had died. Shate told Mutanda and other relatives who agreed on repatriating the body through the illegal crossing point.

"On 21 February at around 2pm the relatives went to Mozambique to collect the body using a Toyota Land cruiser. In Chiredzi the duo sought to put the corpse in the mortuary and it was in narrating their story that it was discovered that they had illegally repatriated the body," she said.