Court orders prosecutors to drop Poppe, Lauwo from charge sheet

Dar es Salaam.  The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court has given the prosecution side seven days to complete changing a charge sheet by dropping Zacharia Hans Poppe and Franklin Lauwo for the case facing Evans Aveva and Godfrey Nyange to proceed.

The court’s Resident Magistrate-in-Charge, Mr Thomas Simba, issued the ultimatum to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) lawyer, Mr Leonard Swai after telling the court that the case was set for mention.

Mr Swai, on August 10, said the court had ordered dropping of Mr Poppe and Mr Lauwo from the charge sheet so that the case facing Aveva and Nyange could continue.

"We have taken the charge sheet to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). I have tried to make follow-ups until today. However, the DPP has not worked on it because he was not in Dar es Salaam. So, we ask to be given two weeks to ensure the DPP works on it," Swai told the court.

After Swai’s argument, Mr Aveva asked the court to grantseven days only because 14 days were too many.

For his part, the Mr Nyange said changing the charge sheet by dropping Mr Poppe and Mr Lauwo had taken over two months while the Prosecution side is aware that they had been in remand prison for over one year now.

The accused persons face 10 charges including conspiracy, forgery, presenting forged documents, perjury and money laundering.