When Noela Rukundo visited Burundi from Australia she planned on attending her stepmother’s funeral. It turns out her husband had planned a funeral of his own though, hiring some hitmen to kill his wife and dispose of her body whilst he remained in Melbourne.

Rukondo managed to convince the hitmen to spare her life though, returning to Australia in secret and staying with her church’s pastor. The BBC with more:

By now, Kalala had informed the community that his wife had died in a tragic accident. He had spent the day hosting a steady stream of well-wishers, many of whom donated money.

“It was around 7.30pm,” Noela says. “He was in front of the house. People had been inside mourning with him and he was escorting a group of them into a car.”

It was as they drove away that Noela sprang her surprise. “I was stood just looking at him. He was scared, he didn’t believe it. Then he starts walking towards me, slowly, like he was walking on broken glass.

“He kept talking to himself and when he reached me, he touched me on the shoulder. He jumped. “He did it again. He jumped. Then he said, ‘Noela, is it you?’… Then he start screaming, ‘I’m sorry for everything.'”

Noela called the police who ordered Kalala off the premises and later obtained a court order against him. Days later, the police instructed Noela to call Kalala. Kalala made a full confession to his wife, captured on tape, begging for her forgiveness and revealing why he had ordered the murder.

“He say he wanted to kill me because he was jealous,” says Noela. “He think that I wanted to leave him for another man.”

This week in the dumbest things to come out of a man’s mouth we give you Balenga Kalala. What has become of the moron since then?

On 11 December last year, in court in Melbourne, after pleading guilty to incitement to murder, Kalala was sentenced to nine years in prison.

“His voice always comes in the night – ‘Kill her, kill her,'” says Noela of the nightmares that now plague her. “Every night, I see what was happening in those two days with the kidnappers.”

Ostracised by many in Melbourne’s African community, some of whom blame her for Kalala’s conviction, Noela sees a difficult future for her and her eight children.

“But I will stand up like a strong woman,” she says. “My situation, my past life? That is gone. I’m starting a new life now.”

One can only hope the rest of her local community rally behind her, sounds like this poor woman has been through enough hardship for one lifetime.

[source:bbc]