Uamsho lawyers call for disregard of bail appeal

LAWYERS for ten Uamsho members facing criminal charges before the High Court in Zanzibar on Friday asked the Court of Appeal to reject the appeal lodged by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), opposing a decision on issues surrounding their bail application.

Advocates Salum Toufiq, Abdallah Mohamed, Rajab Abdallah and Suleyman Salum told Justices Edward Rutakangwa, Bernard Luanda and William Mandia that the appeal in question should not be entertained as it was filed in contravention of the provision under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act.

The Act, according to the advocates, does not allow any party to the proceedings to lodge an appeal with a view of challenging any interrogatory order or decision given by the High Court, unless such decision has the effect of determining rights of the parties.

They submitted that the decision given by High Court Judge Abraham Mwampashi on March 11, this year, did not determine the rights of the parties into the case and, thus, was not subjected for appeal.

The advocates, in the alternative, asked the justices on appeal to throw away the appeal because the ruling attached indicated only eight people whereas the Notice of Appeal institution shows the number of the accused persons as ten.

On March 12, this year, the DPP lodged a notice of appeal with intention to challenge the ruling of the High Court judge, overruling his objection on the matter and subsequently lodged memorandum of appeal before the Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal at Zanzibar.

Responding to the submissions by the advocates, State Attorneys Fatma Hassan, Abdallah Mgongo and Ali Rajab, for the DPP, requested the justices on appeal to overrule the objections raised because the grounds advanced to support the same lacked merits.

They told the court that the law allowed the DPP to lodge an appeal against judgment, ruling or order of the High Court upon being aggrieved by the findings reached.

According to the state attorneys, the discrepancy pointed out on the number of accused persons was a minor error and was a curable defect.

After hearing the submissions from both parties, the justices said they would deliver their decision on the matter on the date to be announced later.

The respondents in the matter are Farid Hadi Ahmed, Msellem Ali Msellem, Mussa Juma Issa, Azan Khalid Hamdani, Suleiman Juma Suleiman, Khamis Ali Suleiman, Hassan Bakari Suleiman, Ghalib Ahmada Omar, Abdalla Said Ali and Fikirini Majaliwa Fikirini.

It is alleged that on October 25, last year, the respondents were charged with four counts of conspiracy, sabotage, soliciting, inciting and persuading others to commit offences, which were read over and explained to them before the Registrar of the High Court of Zanzibar.

The respondents were not allowed to enter plea to the charges because the Registrar of the High Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the counts as contained in the charge sheet. Thereafter, the respondents requested for bail, but the prosecution vehemently opposed.

In his ruling, the Registrar refused to grant bail the respondents. Having being aggrieved, the latter filed an application for review before the High Court. The DPP opposed by filing a preliminary objection to the hearing of the application.

However, Judge Mwampashi overruled the DPP’s objection and declared the proceedings regarding the bail application before the Registrar and ruling a nullity. The DPP decided to file the appeal in question before the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision by the High Court judge to sit on review column.

Source: http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/local-news/23902-uamsho-lawyers-call-for-disregard-of-bail-appeal