LUSAKA High Court judge Chalwe M’chenga has acquitted two persons accused of murdering NIPA student Ruth Mbandu for lack of sufficient evidence.

This is in a matter where Soma and Edward Siamandima were alleged to have gruesomely murdered Mbandu in 2012.

Passing his judgment yesterday, Judge M’chenga said the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt thereby failing to establish the actual killers in the matter.

The court also dismissed a video that state prosecutors tendered in as evidence.

Judge M’chenga said it was clear from the video that the police forced him to confess.

Defending himself last November, Soma said police officers forced him to admit the charge.

He said the officers beat him to a point where he defecated in his pants.

Soma narrated that he was in Mpika at the time the crime was committed but that later police officers apprehended him, accusing him of being on the run.

“Your honour I was forced to agree that I killed Ruth Mbandu by police officers because they threatened to kill me if I denied. They beat me to a point where I even defecated. I had no option but to agree and that is how I was jointly charged,” said Soma.

On July 15, 2012, Zambia woke up to chilling news of Mbandu’s gruesome murder.

Mbandu had her face removed, leaving only her hair and teeth before her murderers dumped her body at one of the houses in Emmasdale.