Author: FAUSTINE KAPAMA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal by resident of Coast Region, Muhsin Mfaume, who was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment plus twelve strokes of the cane for raping his step daughter.
Justices Stella Mugasha, Gerald Ndika and Ignas Kitusi ruled against Mfaume, the appellant, after holding that the appeal he had lodged to fault the decisions of the High Court and Trial District Court was meritless.
“All said, our conclusion is that the appeal has no merit and we hereby dismiss it in its entirety,” they declared.
During hearing of the appeal, the appellant had contended, among others, that the charge of rape against him had not been proved by the prosecution.
In their judgment delivered in Dar es Salaam recently, the justices of the appeals court observed from the findings of the two courts below having accepted the evidence of victim of rape as representing the truth and they rejected the appellant’s defence case.
“We are satisfied that conclusion cannot be faulted in view of the position we have taken in this case. First of all, we have equally found (the victim) to be a candid witness whose version of the matter was supported by (other prosecution witnesses),” they said.
Secondly, according to the justices, the prosecution case as being advanced by what was stated by the appellant himself and that of the victim’s half sister, specifically on the point that on March 26, 2009, the daughter left her home and went to her aunt.
They, thus, found such ground far from meritorious. The appellant had also complained of variances of dates on which the offence was committed.
The justices noted that there was evidence showing the girl was raped on March 25, 2009 at night and disclosed the ordeal to her aunt in the morning of March 26, 2009.
Furthermore, the justices noted availability of evidence from the victim’s aunt that on March 26, 2009 she received from the victim of rape the complaint of having been raped by her stepfather the previous night.
“We think these are the cornerstone facts of this case and that the two courts below found them as established. We see no reason to disturb those concurrent findings because they were based on sound evaluation of the evidence,” they said.
Facts show that the appellant is a step father of the alleged victim. The mother of the girl was away from the matrimonial home from December 2008 to March 2009, having moved to her farmland at Bagala village.
There were three people left at the homestead when she was away. They were the appellant, the victim and her half-sister.
On the eventful date at night, the appellant took the victim to the sitting room and offered her a drink which looked like black Currant juice.
As it had a bitter taste the victim hesitated to take it but the appellant forced her to take a full glass of that drink.
The drink had an instant effect on the girl as she felt weak immediately after taking it, a state which the appellant allegedly took advantage of.
He undressed her and had sex with her. In the morning, the girl went to her aunt who was living within the same village and told her what she had gone through.
