Lwakatare answers DPP move

A Prison warder handcuffs Mr Wilfred Lwakatare, the Defence and Security director of the Opposition Chadema party at the Kisutu Magistrate’s Court in Dar es yesterday after his trial was postponed. PHOTO | MICHAEL JAMSON. 

By Rosina John  

 

In Summary

On May 8, this year, Judge Kaduri ruled that particulars of offences instituted against Lwakatare and Rwezaura did not show elements of terrorism as the law required.

Dar es Salaam. Chadema Defense and Security director Wilfred Lwakatare yesterday filed an objection seeking the dismissal of an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) challenging the nullification of terrorist charges against him.

The objection was filed yesterday at the Court of Appeal through his lawyer Peter Kibatala. He advanced two grounds of objection to fault the application in which the DPP is asking the court to call and revise records of the High Court.

Mr Lwakatare will continue to remain in custody after the Kisutu Magistrate’s Court failed to rule on his bail application. Mr Lwakatare and his co-accused Joseph Rwezaura were ordered to remain in remand until June 10, as they await the magistrate, who is conducting proceedings at the lower court to return from his annual leave. In the objection, Lwakatare is requesting the Court of Appeal to dismiss the application in question because the DPP has not attached a copy of proceedings of the High Court, which is the subject of revision.

His lawyer also stated, on the grounds of objection, that the affidavit in support of the DPP’s application was defective because it contained extraneous matters. In his application, the DPP seeks the appeals court to examine records of the High Court for the purpose of satisfying itself as to correctness, legality or propriety
of the ruling and orders made by Judge Lawrence Kaduri on May 8, this year. “It is improper for the High
 Court to determine the validity of the provisional charge,” reads one of grounds of the application. Lwakatare and Rwezaura are the accused persons in the first case to be instituted since the Terrorist Act was enacted in 2000.

On May 8, this year, Judge Kaduri ruled that particulars of offences instituted against Lwakatare and Rwezaura did not show elements of terrorism as the law required.

He explained that a charge that can set in motion the machinery of justice has to contain reasonable information as to the nature of the offence charged. The judge held, therefore, that there was an error in framing the charges against the accused person.

Following such a decision, Lwakatare and Rwezaura are now facing only one count of conspiracy to commit an offence of harming the managing editor of a private owned newspaper, Dennis Msacky. Such offence filed under the Penal Code is bailable under the law.