Court overturns appeal against Kitilya, 2 others
What you need to know:
The High Court yesterday struck out an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) against the decision by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court to drop the money laundering charge against former Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Harry Kitilya and two others.
Dar es Salaam. The High Court yesterday struck out an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) against the decision by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court to drop the money laundering charge against former Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Harry Kitilya and two others.
Giving the ruling yesterday, judge-in-charge Moses Mzuna agreed with the preliminary objection raised by the defence side, that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal because it wad filed prematurely. “The removal of the count did not finalise the case because what had been decided was a technical aspect,” the judge ruled.
After the ruling, the judge directed the file of the case to be taken back to the Kisutu court to continue with the proceedings.
Apart from Kitilya, two other accused persons are former Miss Tanzania and head of investment banking at Stanbic Bank Shose Sinare and Sioi Graham Solomon, the former Chief Legal Counsel to the Bank. They were arraigned in April 1 this , charged with eight counts, including Sh12 billion money laundering. Others are forgery and obtaining money by false pretences. In April 27, principal resident magistrate Emilius Mchauru of the Kisutu Court struck out the money laundering count for lack of competence.
Mr Mchauru accepted submissions from defence counsels led by advocates Dr Ringo Tenga,Majura Magafu and Alex Mgongolwa, that the count was defective.
After the decision by the lower court,the defence team asked for bail to their clients on grounds that the remaining offences were bailable.
However, the prosecution led by principal state attorney Osward Tibabyekomya objected to the bail request on grounda that they had already filed a notice of appeal against the decision. According to Mr Tibabyekomya,the lower court had no jurisdiction to rule on the bail application because the case was at the appeal stage.
In the appeal, the State alleged that, the Kisutu Court gave the decision without giving them a chance to make an ammendment of the charge.
In his ruling yesterday, judge Mzuna said that, the prosecution still had a chance to amend or substute the charge if they want to do so.
However, the prosecution was not happy with the ruling and said they intended to lodge an appeal.
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