THE Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday sentenced two residents of Arusha to 60 months imprisonment each for forging Voter Registration Cards and uttering them to CRDB Bank PLC.
Resident Magistrate Godfrey Mwambapa
convicted Kassim Ifuka (40) and Yassin Haima (32) of the offences after
taking into consideration the evidence tendered by some prosecution
witnesses. During the trial, the prosecution, led by Senior State
Attorneys Shadrack Kimaro and Estazia Wilson, called over 20 witnesses.
The Magistrate ordered each convict to
remain be-hind bars for 30 months on the count of forgery and other 30
months for uttering the forged document after the prosecution
sufficiently proved beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the
offences as charged.
Magistrate Mwambapa, however, ordered
such sentences to run co-currently. This means that each convict would
serve for only 30 months, in jail. The Magistrate surprised many when he
directed such sentence should be counted as from April 2, 2015, when
they were committed to remand, pending trial.
He took into consideration mitigating
factors raised by advocate Nehemiah Nkonko, for the convicts, that his
clients have remained in remand for about three years and that such
period was enough punishment for them, considering the nature of
offences charged.
According to the Penal Code, the law
analysing sections governing prosecution of criminal offences, whoever
convicted of forgery is liable for seven-year jail term. The law
provides same sentence of seven years to a convict of uttering false
document.
The two convicts were charged alongside
two others on 29 various offences, including conspiracy to steal over
57m/- from the bank, forging documents, uttering false documents,
stealing and money laundering. In his judgment, the Magistrate convicted
the accused on only four counts.
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