Leading Malawian human rights activist dies

Prominent Malawian human rights activist Rafiq Hajat suffered a fatal heart attack in Blantyre last week. He was 65. President Lazarus Chakwera has sent his condolences to Hajat’s family and the human rights fraternity ‘which has lost a great giant’. The Nyasa Times reports that Hajat was the founder and director for the Institute for Policy Interaction which fought for democracy early 1990s. He was also the chairman of the Nyasa Junior Academy, a private school based in Blantyre. He once served as an executive member of the United Democratic Front, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chairperson of Development of Malawian Traders' Trust. In 2012, he was a finalist for the Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, which ultimately went to Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi.