DAR ES SALAAM: Soldiers sentenced to hang appeal decision

BY KARAMA KENYUNKO

The three soldiers with Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) who were on Tuesday sentenced to death by hanging have given notice of intention to appeal the judgement.

Their advocate Mluge Karoli, presented the notice of appeal to the registrar of the Court of Appeal based on ‘dissatisfaction of the judgment given to his clients’.

Advocate Karoli claimed that due to the very nature of a Variance Case, it cannot be conclusive that there was ‘intent’ to kill due to the discrepancy or even insufficiency of evidence.

He even argued that there was not a single one of the witnesses who was an ‘eyewitness’ to testify as to the circumstances that led to the killing of Swetu Fundikira which he purports to have been the result of a fight not an attack.

“The responsibility to prove who killed the deceased is not my clients…the burden of proof lies with the prosecution and the Court of Appeal will assert that…” an optimistic Karoli explained in his notice.

On Tuesday the High Court of Tanzania sentenced to death the three soldiers after it found them guilty of the murder of Swetu Fundikira, a relative of former Nyamwezi chief Abdallah Fundikira, in an incident that occurred two years ago.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Zainabu Mruke Mruke, said the court was satisfied with the testimony adduced by the six prosecution witnesses and the circumstantial evidence availed, hence found the accused guilty of murder as charged.

The three convicts are MT 85067 Mohamed Rashid (27) of National Service, Mbweni Camp, MT 1900 Sergeant Roda Robert (42) from the same camp and MT 75854 Corporal Ali Ngumbe (37) from JKT Kunduchi camp.

According to the charge sheet, the accused committed the offence on January 23, 2010 at around 1.30am along the Mwinyijuma road in Kinondoni. After postmortem and circumstantial evidence were put together, it was concluded that the cause of death was wounds sustained in a beaten.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN (23/11/2012): http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=48303