Chief Resident Magistrate Madalitso Khoswe Chimwaza has committed to Mzuzu High Court a case involving former President Peter Mutharika’s stepson Tadikira Mafubza alongside four others.

The committal follows an application by the State that the matter be heard before Mzuzu High Court on grounds that alleged offenses were committed in Mzimba District.

The five were arrested on Wednesday this week in connection to the death of 30 suspected victims of human trafficking exhumed from a mass grave in Mtangatanga Forest in Mzimba District last month.

According to police reports, collected evidence connects all the five suspects to the case and points to the role each one played.

“The impounded vehicles are a Scania Van belonging to Mr. Mafubza Mutharika believed to have carried the suspected migrants and a Toyota Sienta that was used by the master minders,” reads a police statement.

The law enforcement agency has further disclosed that preliminary autopsy report on the dead bodies reveals that the victims died of suffocation.

Magistrate Chimwaza has also directed that the accused will enter their plea before the said Mzuzu High Court.

“The next step is that the file will be transferred to Mzuzu as well as the accused persons for the High Court to start all the procedures, the plea and everything else, that will be all,” said Ibrahim Wali, Mafubza’s lawyer.

The suspects are expected to answer two counts of murder and trafficking in persons.

The Service says is still waiting for a final full report from pathologists who conducted the autopsy.

Meanwhile, police detectives are still investigating the case to arrest other suspects who are reported at large.