AfricaPress-Tanzania: A RESIDENT of Musoma Township, Francis Thomas, will remain behind bars for 30 years for robbing 13,000/- and a mobile phone, while armed with a sharp object, from his friend Mnubi Vincent.
This follows the decision of the High Court, Musoma District Registry, to dismiss the appeal under which Thomas, the appellant, had lodged to challenge the findings of the trial Musoma District Court.
Judge Sephrine Galeba dismissed all five grounds of appeal the appellant had lodged in an attempt to support his innocence after holding that the same lacked legal merits.
“The findings and the judgment of the district court of Musoma are hereby confirmed and the sentence of 30-year imprisonment imposed on Francis Thomas shall be served by him. This appeal is dismissed,” he ruled.
During hearing of the appeal, the appellant had contended that the trial magistrate erred for convicting him based on only the evidence of the robbery victim without any evidence of any other person who saw him committing the offence.
He complained that he was not properly identified by his victim because the conditions of identification during the night were not met and that the trial court erred in finding him guilty because, the alleged exhibits that were used in the commission of the offence were not tendered before the trial court.
The appellant stated that the trial court neither considered his defence nor gave him an opportunity to call his witnesses and that the trial court convicted him without the prosecution proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In his judgment, however, the judge found all grounds lacking merits, having scrutinised the evidence given by prosecution witnesses and sufficiently proved the case against the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt.
“It is the holding of this court, based on the evidence (given) that the case was proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said.
He also rejected the argument by the appellant that his defence evidence was not considered by the trial court.
Having scanning through the judgment of the trial court, the judge noted that it was clear that both the appellant and his counsel were not right in complaining that the trial court did not consider and analyse the evidence of the appellant.
Judge Galeba noted that the appellant major and substantive complaint was that, the case had been fabricated because Vincent and himself were competing over a female lover.
“In the circumstances, the evidence of the appellant was not only considered, but the same was even analysed and the reason why the same was not believable was given. To this court, the complaint that the appellant’s evidence was not considered and analysed had no merit,” he said.
On December 24, 2018, at about 22:00 hours, Francis Thomas, along Majita Road in Musoma Township while a passenger on Mnubi Vincent’s motor bike, he stabbed the latter with a sharp object in the back and had an accident.
Francis took advantage of the confusion created by the attack on his victim and the accident, to hold him on the ground with imminent threats of death with a knife if Vincent did not give him money.
The aggressor made away with his 13,000/- and a mobile phone make Techno 9.
Because he had threatened Vincent to the core and subdued him morally, Francis also gave the victim his mobile phone to send him money whenever he got it and to keep the incidence to himself in strict confidence.
Francis was later arrested and charged with armed robbery in the district court in Musoma. But he denied the charge and following the trial of the case he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.
