THE Mongu High Court has put three juveniles on two years probation after their murder charge was reduced to that of manslaughter by the State.

High Court Judge Christine Phiri in passing her judgment also ordered that the three juveniles aged 14, 15 and 16, respectively, should be reporting to the social welfare department for counseling.

The trio was facing one count of murder contrary to section 200 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.

They are alleged to have murdered their classmate, Sikuniso Sikuniso, 14, on October 20, 2007.

The charge was later reduced to manslaughter to which they pleaded guilty.

Facts before the court were that the trio had on the material day gone to drink in the nearby village and when they returned, they found the deceased sleeping in their apartment.

They woke him up and accused him of having vomited on their beddings.

Consequently, the accused started beating the deceased but he ran away.

They pursued him and when they caught up with him, they continued beating him until onlookers separated them.

He complained of severe body pains due to injuries caused by beatings administered on him by the accused persons.

Body pains persisted and his health deteriorated until he died.

The juveniles were arrested on February 19, 2008 and no postmortem was conducted on the body of the deceased due to his religious faith.

Mongu social welfare department officer, Wesley Muntemba told the court that the behaviour of the accused was good and that they came from families with humble backgrounds.