6 charged with illegal possession of ivory

SIX people appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam on Thursady charged with conspiracy and unlawful possession of several pieces of elephant tusks valued at over 7bn/-.

They are Mohamed Suleiman Musa, Mohamed Haji Haji, alias Udole, Juma Ali Makame, Mohamed Hija Mashaka, Omary Hamad Ally and Haider Ahmed Abdallah.

Before Principal Resident Magistrate Nyigulila Mwaseba, the accused persons were not allowed to enter plea to the charges because the case will be tried by the High Court.

The magistrate ordered them to go to remand until December 5, this year, when the case will be mentioned. Investigations into the matter, the prosecution said, have not been completed.

It is alleged that the accused persons conspired to commit the offence of unlawfully possession of government trophies between October 1 and November 13, this year, at various places in Kinondoni District and different areas in Mjini Magharibi in Zanzibar.

State Attorney Shadrack Kimaro, for the prosecution, further told the court that on November 13, this year, at Zanzibar Port within the district and region of Mjini Magharibi, jointly and together, the accused persons were found in possession of 1,023 pieces of elephant tusks.

Such consignment, according to the prosecution, had an estimated weight of 2,915 kilogrammes and valued at 7,480,125,000/-. It is alleged that the ivory consignment was intercepted at the Zanzibar port in a 40 foot shipping container ready for transportation to China, the suspected main destination.

The arraignment of the accused persons comes a few weeks after two Chinese were taken before the same court facing similar charges of unlawfully possession of 706 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 1,889kgs valued at 5,435,865,000/-, property of the government. The trio were Huang Gin (50), Xu Fujie (22) and Chen Jinzhan (31).

The court was told that the accused persons committed the offence on November 2, this year, at Kifaru Street, Mikocheni B in Kinondoni District in the city. Well-armed criminals kill elephants and rhinos for their tusks, largely due to increasing demand in China and other Asian countries for ivory ornaments and folk medicines.

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989 after the population of elephants dropped from their millions in the mid- 20th century to about 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.

Last year, a Tanzanian member of parliament said poaching was out of control with an average of 30 elephants being killed for their ivory every day.

In August 2011, Tanzanian authorities seized more than 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in sacks of dried fish at Zanzibar port and destined for Malaysia.

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