THE High Court here yesterday rejected an application by Arusha Urban legislator Godbless Lema (Chadema), to have a decision by the Resident Magistrate Court on his bail plea reviewed.
Acting Senior Judge of the High Court
Sekela Moshi on the other hand okayed an application by the legislator
through his advocates Sheck Mfinanga and Peter Kibatala to file an
appeal at the court. The opposition MP has been in remand since November
2, facing seditious charges.
In his ruling, Judge Moshi stated that
the prayer by Mr Lema to have the High Court summon the case files from
the Resident Magistrate’s Court for review lacked legal basis. However,
the judge granted the filing of an appeal at the court.
“The High Court cannot review the case
file for Lema to be granted bail, I advise you to appeal against the
decision (by the resident magistrate court) at this court,” Justice
Moshi told Lema’s defence counsel.
Earlier, State Attorney Paul Kadushi
presented an injunction, stating that there were some legal errors in
the case number 440/441 at the Resident Magistrate Court in regard to
the bail for the accused.
Supported by State Attorney Materu
Marandu, Kadushi presented two grounds of injunction as to why the High
Court should not entertain the application by Mr Lema. He further argued
that the application by Mr Lema was against Section 43 (2) of the
Resident Magistrate Act.
Kadushi noted that the decision by the
Arusha Resident Magistrate Court to deny Mr Lema bail was a minor ruling
which did not require intervention of the High Court.
“This court your honour is held back by
the said section on making reviews on minor rulings ... we thus ask you
to dismiss the application,” the attorney prayed. Mr Kadushi made his
arguments, referring to previous similar cases, stressing, however, that
the state was aware of the right of the applicant to file an appeal.
He argued further that Section 359(1) of
the Penal Code does not provide for the High Court to review such
decisions made at lower courts.
Reacting to the arguments, Advocate
Kibatala assisted by a team of other lawyers, opposed the injunction by
the state, asking the court to review the application.
Mr Kibatala argued that the defence
filed the application at the High Court to have the case file reviewed
as to why the lower court has not granted bail to the legislator.
“The suspect was initially granted bail
but before the court spelt out bail conditions, the state indicated an
intention to oppose the bail and the court eventually entertained the
appeal by the state,” Mr Kibatala charged.
The defence counsel thus prayed to the
court to review its application and grant bail to the embattled MP or
direct the lower court to make good of its initial decision to release
the MP on bail.
After the court session here, Lema’s
lawyers were seen struggling to file the appeal at the High Court, with
some of them hinting that they will file the appeal under certificate of
urgency.
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