Africa-Press – Tanzania. Arusha.
The African Court on Human and People’s Rights (AfCHPR) has dismissed an appeal by four people convicted of drug trafficking by a Tanzanian court.
The four – three Tanzanians and an Iranian – were in 2016 convicted by the High Court of Tanzania and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
The applicants, Yahya Zumo Makame and three others – two other Tanzanian nationals and an Iranian national – were ordered to pay a fine of Sh1.4 billion in total.
They later appealed their conviction and sentence to the Tanzania Court of Appeal which dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
In their appeal to the African Court, the applicants contended that their right to fair trial in Tanzania had been violated.
Specifically, they alleged that the legal system in Tanzania only permits one appeal from a decision of the High Court.
In their view, this was contrary to Articles 3 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other international protocols on civil and political rights.
They also alleged that the fourth applicant, Mohamed Gholumgader Pourdad – an Iranian national – could not understand the proceedings for lack of an interpreter.
The court then had to decide as to whether the absence of a court in Tanzania that is of a higher jurisdiction that the Court of Appeal denied them more room for appeal.
The court said the absence of higher judicial structures in Tanzania above the Appeals Court was not a violation of the African Charter in the context of the case.
Furthermore, the Arusha-based judicial organ analysed all the grounds of appeal as filed by the applicants together with the counter-arguments raised by the State.
Given the manner in which the Court of Appeal dealt with the applicants’ appeal, the Court found nothing which could merit its intervention and, therefore, dismissed the applicants’ allegations.
It also considered whether the acquittal of one of the accused persons by the domestic courts amounted to the application of “double-standards” which prejudiced the applicants’ right to fair trial.
The court noted that the matter was also evaluated by the Court of Appeal but, further, that from its perusal of the record, there was nothing warranting its intervention.
In absence of translation services, the African Court – while confirming the accused person (an Iranian national) could not understand the language of the Court proceedings – he was represented by a counsel.
Having found that the Respondent State (Tanzania) had not violated any of the applicants’ rights, the Court dismissed the claims for reparations and ordered each party to bear its costs.
