TANZANIA: Court jails, fines six EPA accused

BY KARAMA KENYUNKO

The Kisutu resident Magistrate Court yesterday sentenced the accused businessmen and Bank of Tanzania (BoT) officials in the External Payments Arrears (EPA) case to a total of 10 years.

The three businessmen Farijala Hussein, Rajabu Maranda, Ajay Somani and three BoT officials Imani Mwakosya, Esther Komu and Sophia Larika were charged with falsely obtaining more than 3.8bn/- .

Reading the judgment on behalf of the panel of magistrates Samwel Kalua and Beatrice Mutungi, Magistrate Ilvin Mgeta said the first accused Hussein will serve three years in jail for the offence of forgery and two years for uttering a false document.

Mgeta said that in the fourth count which is obtaining credit from BoT by false pretence, the accused Hussein, Maranda and Somani will spend two years in jail each.

He said the accused Mwakosya, Komu and Larika were fined 5.0m/- each for occasioning the loss from BoT, failure of which they will spend three years in jail.

The court also rejected the offence of conspiracy and assigned debt because the prosecution failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence.

The court also ordered the accused Hussein to pay back the government compensation of 82,956,400/- while Maranda is required to pay 616,443,600.10 and Somani 400m/-, failure of which their properties will be attached.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN (23/11/2012): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=48304