AfricaPress-Tanzania: ACTIVISTS have called for speeding up hearing of sexual abuse cases and fair judgment to sex offenders.
“There were some judicial decisions that we did not agree with last year because sexual cases were many, but hearing took a long time with accused being given just minor punishment,” Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa) said in a press statement.
Zanzibar Tamwa Director, Dr Mzuri Issa, said that the judiciary should speed up the hearing and adjudication of sexual abuse cases.
“There was a disturbing trend in the judiciary process because citizens seeking access to justice particularly victims of sexual violence had to wait for a long time and some of the offenders were given lenient punishment,” Dr Issa said.
She noted that the victims of sexual abuse had been unhappy with delays in court trials, dismissal and lenient punishment given to the offenders, a situation which also frustrated parents and guardians.
Some examples of unimpressive judgment last year included a case of nine children who were injected by an unknown jab for unknown reasons.
The attacker of the children was arrested and pleaded guilty, but it took several months before the hearing followed by a judgment in which the offender was sentenced to pay only 600,000/- for the offence.
“With the unknown jab and unknown side effects on children, may be it may take long before the children are affected and even without seriously investigating into the matter to find out the motive of the injection, the court handled the cases very loosely, allowing the offender to walk freely.”
Ms Saphia Ngalapi, Chief Communication Officer, Tamwa (Zanzibar) also said with the current commitment of President Hussein Ali Mwinyi and his government, they hoped to see changes among law enforcers and judicial officers in dealing with cases linked to the abuse of children and women.
