The owner of Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), Mr Harbinder Singh Sethi, under tight security at the Kisutu court. Mr Sethi's eceonomic sabotage case has been dropped after plea bargain with DPP recently. PHOTO| FILE
Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s efforts to promote justice delivery are laudable, lawyers have said as they heap praise on the leadership style of the sixth Head of State during her first 100 days in the highest office in the land.
Lawyers, who spoke to The Citizen, cited examples of appointments of Sylvester Mwakitalu as Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Camilius Wambura as Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Salum Rashid Hamduni as the director general of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) as apt.
In that regard, they advised President Hassan to amend the laws and related regulatory frameworks, guidelines and procedures to bolster sustainability of the achievements.
The lawyers commended the sixth-phase government on achievements that have been recorded in the first 100 days of President Hassan’s administration.
President Hassan was formally sworn in on March 19 succeeding her predecessor, the late President John Magufuli, who had died from natural causes two days earlier – and was buried at his home town of Chato in Geita Region on March 26.
Lawyer Dominic Ndunguru said President Hassan’s swift move to appoint new top executives in the justice dispensing stakes has started to bear fruit.
“There was serious outcry against case-framing against innocent citizens – including cases of alleged economic sabotage, in which the victims are automatically denied bail,” Mr Ndunguru said.
“But, the new presidential appointments have already resulted in some of the cases being suddenly dropped, with accused persons who had been languishing in remand prison being set free just as soon,” he said.
Mr Ndunguru said this has helped decongest the country’s prisons and reduced the government’s expenditure in taking care of the remandees.
“The Head of State should now focus on amending the laws so as to prevent suspects from unnecessarily being held in remand prisons and encourage the provision of bail to bona fide suspects as a natural and constitutional right of all citizens,” he said – stressing that “laws considered unfriendly to the provision of justice should be scrapped or amended accordingly to preserve these achievements for many years to come.”
According to him, President Hassan’s leadership is also expected to improve the vetting systems for candidates being considered for appointment to the judicial system – making it mandatory that all unqualified candidates are unquestionably dropped. This would uphold the respect of the appointing authority – and that of the Presidency, at the end of it all.
This is if only because it is the appointing authority that will be blamed, and its image tarnished, if and when a leader violates the Codes of Conduct while in public office.
For his part, Advocate Benedict Ishabakaki said the decision by the new DPP Mwakitalu to withdraw some court cases and let go free the wrongly-accused persons – some of whom had spent years behind bars – was long-overdue as it was unnecessary and unjust.
He, therefore, advised the Head of State to build strong institutions which would promote good governance and discourage selfish interests among future public leaders.
“However, laws, regulations and guidelines on criminal cases should be amended to ensure that suspects are arrested and/or arraigned in court only after completion of thorough investigations,” he said.
Another lawyer, Mr Jeremiah Mtobesya, said the recent appointment of judges of the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Tanzania will significantly accelerate the hearing of criminal and other court cases, a major judicial shortcoming down the years.
“The new DPP’s approach is commendable – especially for cases termed ‘unbailable,’ as well as dropping some cases whose accused persons were languishing in remand prisons,” he said.
He suggested that major amendments be made to the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), among which would provide for the arrest and/or arraignment of suspects in court only after thorough investigations have been conducted and completed.”
In addition to commending the appointments made recently of the High Court and Court of Appeal judges, Mr Mtobesya emphasised the need to increase the numbers of the judges – and also review the Lands Tribunal procedures.
In her maiden speech in Parliament on April 22, President Hassan pledged to cooperate with the Judiciary in strengthening its systems of dispensing justice, including improving court infrastructures, increasing the human resource, and promoting greater use of state-of-the-art information and communication technologies.
“The Judiciary and other related institutions should focus on dispensing justice to citizens,” the President stressed – and, more or less in the same breath, promised to continue strengthening the dispensing of justice and overseeing institutions, including the Offices of the Attorney General (AG) and the Solicitor General (SG), the DPP, DCI, PCCB and the Prisons Department.
In another recent development, on June 16, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam dropped the economic sabotage case (Number 27/2017) against the owner of Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), Mr Harbinder Singh Sethi, after he successfully concluded a plea-bargaining agreement with the DPP.
The Kisutu Court ordered Mr Sethi to pay Sh26. 9 billion in compensation to the government after finding him guilty of pocketing $22.199 million and Sh309. 461 billion by deceit.
Mr Sethi paid Sh200 million as the first instalment, and pledged to complete payment in the next 12 months during which his IPTL plant and a parcel of land located in the Kunduchi Salasala area will be held as ‘sureties.’
It is significant that all this took place within the first 100 days of President Hassan’s administration.
In another recent decision, terrorism charges against 36 ‘Uamsho’ (‘Awakening’) Muslim clerics were dropped on the same day (June 16, 2021) after the DPP expressed his lack of intention to continue with the case against the accused who had spent seven years in remand prison.
In the event, Clerics Sheikh Farid Hadi Ahmed and Mselem Ali Mselem were the first to secure their freedom from jail.
“It’s true they have been set free. I have dropped all the charges against them,” said Mr Mwakitalu in a telephone interview.
The clerics were accused of committing terrorism offences between January 2013 and June, 2014, contrary to Section 27(c) of the Terrorism Act, 2002.
Also, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court lifted the Certificate of Bail objection imposed by former DPP Biswalo Mganga on former Reli Assets Holding Company (Rahco) chief executive officer Benhardard Tito and two of his co-accused.
Mr Tito and the co-accused – a former lawyer for the company, Emmanuel Massawe, and a representative of Rothschild (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, Kanji Mwinyijuma – are facing eight charges before the court.
The charges include occasioning the government a loss of Sh1.2 billion; conspiring to commit offences, and abuse of power in a transaction relating to upgrading of the central railway.
The DPP also dropped charges facing 14 suspects of trafficking from rural areas to urban areas of the country for indecent jobs.
In the decision made on June 22, 2021 by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court, the suspects were facing 41 charges including human trafficking; tax evasion, and occasioning a loss of Sh31 million to the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).
On June 18, 2021, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court dropped economic sabotage case number 124/2019 against Marijani Msofe (alias ‘Papa Msofe,’ 53) and his four co-accused persons.
The DPP said he no longer intended to continue with the case against Mr Msofe and his co-accused, namely Wenceslaus Mtu (49); Advocate Mwesigwa Mhingo (36); Josephine Haule (38) and Mr Fadhil Mganga (61).
The suspects were collectively accused of obtaining Sh943 million through deceitful means.
Finally, on June 22, 2021, the High Court of Tanzania overturned the decision of the Advocate Ethics Committee to ban a former Tanzania Law Society (TLS) President, Ms Fatma Karume, from practising law on Mainland Tanzania – and ordered that the decision be referred to the Ethics Committee, thus giving her the opportunity to defend herself.
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