Cattle thief jailed for 189 years

Cattle thief jailed for 189 years

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

04/07/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

A CATTLE thief has been sentenced to 189 years in jail for stock theft – 
dwarfing the previous record sentence of 47 years for the crime.

Fabion Nyamayedenga, 40, from Murehwa, raided farms and kraals in 
Mashonaland East province between October 2009 and December 2010.
He was arrested earlier this year in Buhera.

Nyamayedenga was charged with 22 counts of stock theft and was convicted of 
all but one by Buhera magistrate Henry Sande last week.
Murehwa businessman, Searchmore Muvirimi, who had been charged alongside 
Nyamayedenga, was acquitted.

The magistrate conditionally suspended 90 years of Nyamayedenga’s sentence, 
meaning he would be eligible for release after 99 years.

The harsh punishment is in line with tough new sentencing guidelines in 
stock theft cases after law makers moved to change the law in response to 
rising cases of cattle rustling.
Magistrates must impose a mandatory nine-year minimum sentence.

In July 2009, Masvingo man Zakaria Chigome was jailed for 47 years for 
stealing 21 cows, 11 of which had calves.

The sentence was at the time said to be the longest imposed in a stock theft 
case.