RORYA resident and
murder convict Lameck Bazir has challenged the conviction and death
sentence by the Bukoba High Court. The court had convicted and sentenced
the 47-year old Mara resident to death over the murder of a person with
albinism.
In the memorandum of appeal, the convict,
through Bukoba-based Advocate Aaron Kabunga, argued that the prosecution
side failed to establish the murder case beyond any reasonable doubt
and the presiding Judge misdirected himself by relying on visual
evidence.
He further argued before Justice Mbarouk Salum chaired Court of Appeal that the first witness, Evarist Andrew was unreliable.
“Your honour, the discrepancies are
irreconcilable. We ask this honourable Court of Appeal to quash the
conviction, set aside the sentence and set the appellant free,” Advocate
Kabunga told the panel whose other members were Rehema Mkuye and
Ferdinand Wambali.
Former Bukoba High Court Judge Filimin
Matogoro on October 27, 2016 convicted two people of murder of the
person with albinism and sentenced them to death by hanging. The
convicts were Lameck Bazir and his 72-year old father inlaw, Pancras
Minago, the resident of Rusabya village in Biharamulo District.
Minago died later while in remand prison.
Prosecuting, Senior State Attorney Athuman Matuma told the High Court
during hearing of the Criminal Case No 57/2015 that the two convicts,
with two other people who were not in court, murdered the late Magdalena
Andrea and fled with several of her body parts.
The offence was committed at around 7.30pm
on September 21, 2008. Fraisca Felix (PW10) told the High Court that on
the material date at around 4pm, the second accused, Minago, with two
other people, arrived at her house and asked her if Magdalena was
present.
She informed them that she had gone to a
nearby local market. Later, in the evening, she heard screams and rushed
hiding some seven paces from the scene where she clearly identified the
two convicts who were attacking the deceased.
Evarist Andrea told the High Court that
the first accused, Bazir, arrived at Rusabya village, posing as a
traditional herbalist and told them, “Watu wa Biharamulo ni maskini,
mnaachia dili (albino) atembee bila ulinzi…loosely translated as
‘Biharamulo residents are poor yet you are letting a person with
albinism to walk without bodyguards.’
He testified that he initially snubbed the
talks as nonsense but when his sister, Magdalena, was killed on
September 21, 2008, he recalled the remarks and immediately reported the
matter to the Village Chairman.
Justice Matogoro observed that the 12
prosecution witnesses who testified in court were trustful and their
evidence was collaborative, leaving no grain of doubt that there were no
other killers but the convicts.
He noted that expert evidence by two
Government Chemists— Gloria Machuve and Fidelis Segumva, who conducted
DNA tests on the killers’ weapons, were crucial because blood tests
matched those of the convicts.
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