Case put off as accused person falls sick

A PAKISTANI who is cocharged with smuggling live wild animals out of the country, Kamran Ahmed, has fallen ill as the case stalled.

Principal Resident Magistrate In-Charge Simon Kobelo  adjourned the case until March 21, 24 and 25 to enable the republic to field more witnesses.

Advocate Edmund Ngelema told the chamber court that his client was seriously ill and that his blood sugar was too high and he could not make it to the court.

Others in the criminal case are Tanzanians; Hawa Mang’unyuka, Martin Kimathi and Michael Mrutu – all charged with smuggling more than 100 live animals and birds to Doha, Qatar ,on November 25, 2010. In criminal cases, accused persons have to be present during the trial even if they are represented by a counsel.

Ahmed is also facing other criminal cases, including one in Arusha, in which he is accused of being in possession of fake United States dollars (purported to be worth 18m/-) and is out on bail in both cases.

Blood sugar refers to concentration of glucose in the blood and Mr Ngemela said after the case was adjourned that Ahmed’s glucose shot to a staggering 300 mark. If blood sugar levels remain too high the body suppresses appetite over the short term.

Longterm hyperglycemia causes many of the long-term health problems including heart disease, eye, kidney, and nerve damage. The most common cause of hyperglycemia is diabetes.

The news of Ahmed falling ill came merely a day after a 20th witness testified how the live animals were loaded into a Qatar military plane without necessary documents in the presence of Mr Ahmed.

Further evidence adduced earlier on was about types of wildlife sneaked out via Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), mentioned as giraffes, gazelle, eland and wildebeest and birds.

The animals and birds were captured and then kept at Ahmed’s animal cage situated at Kwamrefu area in Arusha before being shifted to KIA by trucks and loaded into C.17 plane that flew them to Qatar.

DAILY NEWS TANZANIA