COURT ACQUITS MDEE IN ABUSIVE CASE

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AfricaPress-Tanzania: KISUTU Resident Magistrate’s Court has acquitted former Kawe Member of Parliament Halima Mdee, who was charged with abusing the President of United Republic of Tanzania, Dr John Magufuli.

Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba ruled in Dar es Salaam that the prosecution, through its three witnesses, miserably failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case against Mdee, currently Special Seats MP under the opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema).

He pointed out that it is the requirement of the law that the prosecution has the primary duty to prove the case in a criminal matter beyond reasonable doubt at a required standard.

According to him, the evidence tendered had not linked the MP with the commission of the offence.

In the case, the prosecution had charged Mdee with speaking words against the Head of State, which were likely to cause the breach of the peace.

Facts of the case show that on July 3, 2017, the opposition MP was at Chadema Head Office, along Ufipa Area in Kinondoni District in the city.

While at the said offices, the prosecution alleged, the accused uttered abusive language against the President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The prosecution told the court that following the utterance of the said words, on July 4, 2017, the accused was arrested at Kibangu area in Kinondoni District and handed to the Regional Crime Officer (RCO) Office.

Before her arraignment, the opposition lawmaker was locked up following an order given by the then Kinondoni District Commissioner Mr Ally Hapi, who is currently Iringa Regional Commissioner, for inflammatory statements against the Head of State.

The former District Commissioner was quoted as saying that as the Chairman of the Peace and Security Committee in the district he ordered the law enforcement officers to arrest Mdee and hold her for interrogation for not less than 48 hours before further legal measures.

Mr Hapi derived such powers under some provisions in the Regional Administration Act, empowering Regional Commissioners (RCs) and District Commissioners (DCs) to order citizens to be confined for 48 hours.

When ordering the detention of the MP, DC Hapi told a press conference that his district is not a place for politicians to utter inflammatory statements against government leaders and abusing the president.

In her defence, Mdee had refuted the prosecution’s claim of abusing the head of state.

The lawmaker told the court that she never posted such words in any social media and she was not at a press conference at Chadema Headquarters at Ufipa Street in Kinondoni area where such words are alleged to have been uttered on July 3, 2017.

“On July 3, 2017 I was at home at Mbweni area and remained there the whole day,” she testified in her examination in chief while being led by her defence lawyers.

According to her, she never posted the complained words anywhere in the social media.

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