Dar es Salaam: Zombe lawyers want appeal struck out

Written by DAILY NEWS Reporter.

THE Court of Appeal yesterday failed to proceed with the hearing of an appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to challenge the acquittal of eight former police officers, including Abdallah Zombe on murder charges, after noticing some legal defects.

As a team of senior state attorneys was preparing to start arguing the appeal in question, a member of the panel, Justice Mbarouk Mbarouk broke the silence as he pointed out the defect on the notice of appeal lodged to initiate the case.

Justice Mbarouk said the notice of appeal states that the decision sought to be challenged was given by Court of Appeal Judge Salum Massati, which was not the case. Other Justices were Edward Rutakangwa and Bathuel Mmila.

Citing article 119 of the Constitution of the United Republic, Judge Rutakangwa said any Judge Serving at the Court of Appeal was not authorised to hear cases in High Court or any other Court. “Court of Appeal judge will only hear a case in the High Court only if his or her appointment came at a time when the said matter was proceeding,” he said.

The prosecuting team comprising state attorneys Edwin Kakolaki, Vitalis Timon, and Prudence Rweyongeza and private lawyers hired for the DPP, advocates Revocatus Mtaki and Alexander Mzikila, sought for permission to amend the notice of appeal.

However, the defence team, comprising advocate Majura Magafu opposed the request and asked the Appeals Court to “strike out” the appeal because no proper notice of appeal was filed. After hearing the submissions by both parties, the justices said they would deliver their ruling on the matter at a later stage.

Zombe and his ex-police officers were charged with four counts of killing three mineral businessmen - Sabinus Chigumbi and his relatives Ephrahim Chigumbi and Mathias Lunkombe from Mahenge in Morogoro Region and Juma Ndugu, ex-taxi driver at Manzese area in the city.

The four people were cruelly killed one by one by the police using a gun on January 14, 2006, at Pande Forest in Kinondoni District in the city. Mr Massati, currently a justice of the Appeal Court, who heard the case when he was a judge at the High Court, set free all the accused persons on September 17, 2009, for prosecution’s failure to prove the charges against them.

Other police officers charged alongside Zombe were Senior Superintendent of Police Christopher Bageni, Assistant Superintendent of Police Ahmed Makelle and Constable Jane Andrew. The rest are Constable Noel Leonard, Constable Emmanuel Mabula, Cpl Felix Sedrick, Cpl Nyangerela Moris, Constable Michael Shonza, Cpl Abeneth Salo, Cpl Rajabu Bakari and Cpl Festus Gwabisabi.

Source: Daily News (23/04/2013): http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/16692-zombe-lawyers-want-appeal-struck-out