Kidnapping lands 3 Chinese in court

faustine kapama

THREE Chinese nationals, who were arrested by the police recently in connection with kidnapping their colleague, appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday facing two criminal charges.

They are Chen Chuw Bao (34), Wang Yong Jian (37) and Zheng Pa Jin, alias Mr Ping (40), who are accused of kidnapping and causing grievous harm to a female, Liu Hong (48), who allegedly works at Le Grande Casino.

The accused persons are alleged to have demanded a ransom of 19,000 US dollars from her relatives in China. Bao pleaded guilty to both counts, while Jian admitted the kidnapping charge only, but Jin denied all the counts.

Principal Resident Magistrate Cyprian Mkeha, who is hearing the matter, ordered the trio to remain in custody until November 14, when the accused persons would respond to an affidavit presented by the prosecution, led by Senior State Attorney Hellen Moshi, objecting them to be granted bail.

The prosecution told the court that on October 23, this year, at Palm Beach area in Ilala District, the accused persons kidnapped Ms Hong in order to dispose her, putting her in danger of being murdered. It was alleged further that on the same day and place, the accused persons beat the victim thereby causing her to suffer grievous bodily harm on her different parts of her body.

When objecting bail, the prosecution submitted the affidavit sworn by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Salum Ndalama, who is police officer working as Regional Crime Investigation Officer incharge dealing with criminal investigation matters within Ilala Police Region in the city.

According to SSP Ndalama, the accused persons are from China, who are all jobless and without a permanent address and place of aboard in Tanzania. He stated that information gathered through investigations of the case suggested that the accused persons and others not before the court, were still planning to involve in criminal activities of kidnapping, torture and blackmailing in the city.

SPP Ndalama stated that he had reliable information that the accused persons, and others not yet arrested were still planning to harm the victim in order to destroy evidence in the case which is pending.

He stated that investigations were still underway and, thus, if the accused persons were bailed out, chances are that they would likely interfere with the process and the arrest of other suspects allegedly connected with the crime.

The information he had gathered through investigations into the matter, he stated, indicated that other Chinese who are relatives of the victim were planning to revenge against the actions of the accused persons by causing them actual bodily harm if they get chances.

“It the best interest of the republic for the accused persons to remain in custody till the completion of the case so as to protect the safety of the victim, smooth investigation process and safety of the accused persons,” SSP Ndalama stated.

The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Commissioner of Police (CP), Simon Sirro, was quoted as saying that the kidnapping incident occurred on October 23 this year, in the morning at the Casino, which is located on Samora Avenue in the city.

He said that investigation of the police discovered that the kidnappers were hiding themselves in Palm Beach hotel and demanding a ransom of Yen 100,000 equivalent to 19,000 US dollars to release the victim.

“In October 24 in the evening, police through the cyber crime unit went to the Palm Beach hotel at Upanga in the city and discovered that the suspects were hiding in room number 9, where they knocked the door but the suspects refused to open,” he told a press conference.

According to him, police decided to break the door and suddenly one of the suspects, Wang Young Jing, opened the door that is how the police got into the room and found another Chinese man and a woman who had been kidnapped.

She had lost her consciousness from the beatings she got and had been wounded in the face. CP Sirro further explained that in the hotel room that was rented by Chen Chuw Bao the police found two pieces of towels with blood, plastic ropes and a syringe.