Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam Friday sentenced former Air Tanzania Limited Director General David Mataka to four years imprisonment or pay 8m/- fine for abuse of office and occasioning loss of about 100bn/- to the government.
Principal Resident Magistrate, Janeth Mtega, also sentenced two other people, Ramadhani Mlinga and Bertha Soka, who were charged with forgery alongside Mataka to either pay 2m/- each or go to jail for one year.
The magistrate imposed such sentences after the court was satisfied by evidence produced by 18 prosecution witnesses.
Mataka, according to the magistrate, abused his office in October 2007 at ATCL offices in Ilala District in Dar-es-Salaam City by signing aircraft lease agreements and certificates of acceptance in disregard to technical and legal advice.
He also willfully disregarded the legal advice given by the Attorney General, thus causing loss of 43, 231,718.2 US dollars to ATCL.
On part of Milinga and Soka, the magistrate ruled that there was ample evidence to prove that they forged minutes for retrospective approval of the lease of the aircraft in question.
