Africa-Press – Tanzania. Dar es Salaam.
Leading opposition party, Chadema, yesterday said it will consult members on how to spend Sh350 million set to be repaid to the party following the decision of the High Court in an appeal filed by its leaders.
On Friday, the High Court overturned the judgement of the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court to convict some leaders of the party ordering payment of Sh350 million in fines following a criminal case they were facing.
But, the High Court in its decision ordered reimbursement of the Sh350 million fines to the party leaders lead by national chairman Freeman Mbowe. Yesterday, Chadema’s secretary general John Mnyika said the party will continue receiving public opinion on what should be the way forward.
“Tanzanians are the ones who contributed to the said fines to release party leaders from prison. We are grateful to a team of our lawyers under the leadership of Peter Kibatala because the truth and justice have prevailed at last,” he said.
The overturned ruling was issued on March 10, 2020 by the by Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court’s principal magistrate Thomas Simba.
Legal and Human Rights Centre’s (LHRC) executive director Anna Henga said Chadema collected the money to free its leaders from citizen’s contributions.
“Since justice has taken its course, then the money should be deposited into the party’s special fund in order to help other victims of political activities who are still in prison or remand,” she said, adding:
“The same could be used for filing appeals to convicted cadres and recruit some lawyers for those with on-going cases at different courts countrywide.”
Political analyst Buberwa Kaiza was of the view that the money raised from the public should be returned to the public through a scheduled event.
“A political event could be organized for the amount to be returned back to the community. The law also requires reimbursement of the money to contributors,” he said.
Mr Mbowe and the co-accused appealed at the High Court, challenging decision made by magistrate Simba, saying the court had failed to prove their offenses beyond reasonable doubt.
Overturning the ruling, the High Court Judge Ilvin Mugeta said after going through evidences, the prosecution had failed to prove some of charges that faced the appellants.
He said the words murmured by the appellants which were complained against by the prosecutions, were normally political and were made by the leaders of the opposition party during campaign trails.
He noted that the charges facing the appellants had legal flaws including lacking clear explanations relevant to the offence.
Party leaders and the amount of fine charged in brackets are Mbowe (Sh70m); Dr Vincent Mashinji (Sh30m); John Mnyika (Sh30m) and Salum Mwalimu (Sh30m).
Others are; Esther Matiko (Sh40m); Peter Msigwa (Sh40m); Halima Mdee (Sh40m) and Ester Bulaya (Sh40m).
