TANZANIA: MURO IS AT EASSE WHILE HIS CASE IS TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED
THE High Court has stayed the hearing of an
appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to challenge
the acquittal of former TBC Journalist Jerry Muro and two others in a
10m/- bribery case.
Judge Fauz Twaib ruled last week that it would be safer to suspend the hearing session to await the outcome of another appeal taken by the DPP to the Court of Appeal to oppose the dismissal of the prosecution's first ground of appeal, seeking orders for fresh hearing of the case.
In the case, Muro and his colleagues, Deogratius Mgasa and Edmund Kapama were accused of conspiracy and receiving a 10m/- bribe from exaccountant of Bagamoyo District Council, Michael Wage.
They were acquitted by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam in 2011. Earlier, State Attorney Lilian Itemba had requested the judge to stay the hearing session alleging that the DPP had already lodged a Notice of Appeal and the decision of the Court of Appeal was likely to affect the hearing of the remaining grounds of appeal.
Senior Advocate Richard Rweyongeza had opposed the request by the prosecution, submitting that what was given by the court was an "interrogatory decision" which was not subjected for appeal.
He, therefore, requested the court to continue hearing the remaining grounds of appeal in the matter. In the appeal, the prosecution is asking the High Court to quash the judgment given on November 30, 2011, by Resident Magistrate Frank Moshi, acquitting the trio after concluding that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the charges against them beyond reasonable doubts.
The ground of appeal that was determined, which forms bases of the decision to be appealed against by the DPP, related to an error by the trial magistrate for not recording properly the court proceedings.
Other grounds of appeal that have remained include the failure by the trial magistrate to analyse evidence of prosecution witness, thus arriving into a wrong conclusion and the error in acquitting the three accused persons despite having sufficient evidence to convict them.
Judge Fauz Twaib ruled last week that it would be safer to suspend the hearing session to await the outcome of another appeal taken by the DPP to the Court of Appeal to oppose the dismissal of the prosecution's first ground of appeal, seeking orders for fresh hearing of the case.
In the case, Muro and his colleagues, Deogratius Mgasa and Edmund Kapama were accused of conspiracy and receiving a 10m/- bribe from exaccountant of Bagamoyo District Council, Michael Wage.
They were acquitted by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam in 2011. Earlier, State Attorney Lilian Itemba had requested the judge to stay the hearing session alleging that the DPP had already lodged a Notice of Appeal and the decision of the Court of Appeal was likely to affect the hearing of the remaining grounds of appeal.
Senior Advocate Richard Rweyongeza had opposed the request by the prosecution, submitting that what was given by the court was an "interrogatory decision" which was not subjected for appeal.
He, therefore, requested the court to continue hearing the remaining grounds of appeal in the matter. In the appeal, the prosecution is asking the High Court to quash the judgment given on November 30, 2011, by Resident Magistrate Frank Moshi, acquitting the trio after concluding that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the charges against them beyond reasonable doubts.
The ground of appeal that was determined, which forms bases of the decision to be appealed against by the DPP, related to an error by the trial magistrate for not recording properly the court proceedings.
Other grounds of appeal that have remained include the failure by the trial magistrate to analyse evidence of prosecution witness, thus arriving into a wrong conclusion and the error in acquitting the three accused persons despite having sufficient evidence to convict them.
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