Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE High Court, Dar es Salaam District Registry, has ordered four people to deposit in court 184m/- pending determination of economic trial they are facing.
The four are facing the case before the Kibaha District Court in Coast Region relating to destruction of Standard Gauge Railway Infrastructure.
Judge Juliana Masabo gave such order as one of conditions for bail under which the four accused persons, Abdulilah Ramadhan, alias Salmu, Agustino Kilas, alias Juma, Aman Norbert, alias Michael and Masumbuko Mohamed, alias Mark are required to meet.
Such 184m/-, according to the judge, is one half of the pecuniary loss of 368m/- allegedly occasioned by the accused persons, the applicants, to the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC). The applicants had approached the court to bail them out in the trial.
They are jointly charged with willfully and unlawfully destroying Standard Gauge Railway Infrastructure by cutting railway copper wire; being found in possession of 50 Kilograms of the copper wire, the property the Cooperation and occasioning a pecuniary loss of 368m/- to the TRC.
The judge decided to grant bail to the applicants because the application was within the court’s jurisdiction as pursuant to section 29(4) (a) and (d) of the Economic and Organized Crime Control Act (supra), the application for bail could not be entertained by the District Court of Kibaha.
She also took into consideration that the prosecution could not raise any objection to the application and that the offences under which they stand charges were bailable.
“Considering that no reason has been furnished to this court warranting denial of bail to the applicants and there is no evidence that the applicants were previously granted bail but jumped it, I find no reason why this application should not be allowed,” the judge ruled.
She was, however, quick to point out that since the offences were allegedly committed by four persons, the amount of 184m/- shall be equally shared between the applicants whereby each of them shall deposit in court 46m/- only.
In the alternative, the judge ruled, each of the applicants shall deposit a Title Deed of immovable property of the value not less than 46m/- or any other acceptable form of evidence of ownership of that immovable property from the local authority of the area where the property is located.
“The immovable property shall be within the jurisdiction of the Dar es Salaam Registry of the High Court and shall be free from encumbrances,” Judge Masabo said, adding that the remaining half that is, 184m/- shall be secured by each of the applicants signing a bond of 46m/-.
Other bail conditions set required the applicant to produce two reliable sureties and each surety shall sign bail bond in the sum of 1,500,000/-.
The sureties, according to the judge, must be resident of Dar es Salaam or Coastal Region with recognized place of abode and must have a National Identity Card or letter of introduction from their local leaders.
She further ordered the applicants to surrender their passport and other travel documents (if any) and restricted them from leaving Dar es Salaam and Coastal Regions without first obtaining permission from the Magistrate in charge of Kibaha District Court.
