Police break up lawyers’ protest march in Arusha

Arusha District police boss Thomas Maleko speaks with lawyers when they held a demonstration yesterday to demand the release of fellow advocate Shilinde Ngalula. PHOTO | CITIZEN PHOTOGRAPHER

What you need to know:

  • The Tanganyika Law Society said it was convinced that the re-arrest of advocate Shilinde within court precincts and being led away handcuffed “derogates the sanctified privileges that are bestowed upon advocates in their professional capacity”. It called on the Inspector General of Police and all officers serving under him in Arusha and Loliondo to intervene immediately.

Arusha. Heavily armed police stopped a demonstration by lawyers based here who were protesting against the arrest of their colleague in Loliondo Shilinde Ngalula as the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) joined the fray to condemn the security operation in Ngorongoro.

Lawyers from all corners of Arusha clad in their black gowns had converged at the High Court premises in the city and started marching to the regional police commander’s office to protest but police stepped in and stopped them.

The situation nearly degenerated into a confrontation between them and members of the crack Field Force Unit (FFU) who ordered the former to stop marching lest they face the full wrath of law.

“This is a procession and not an ordinary march. We cannot allow that,” shouted the commander of the anti-riot unit at the site as he gave them ultimatum to risk arrest or pick their representatives to forward their grievances to relevant authorities.

The police leader warned the lawyers, mostly advocates, that they had been tasked to stop the march and ordered them not to proceed and instead to turn back to the Court buildings.

The lawyers retreated, thus defusing what could have been an explosive situation. The lawyers chose to immediately pick a few of their representatives to see the RPC to express their anger over the arrest and detention of Mr. Shilinde who is the officer in charge of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) in Arusha.

The drama at the High Court premises in Arusha began earlier in the day when the lawyers condemned the continued intimidation of advocate Shilinde who remains detained at the Loliondo police station on alleged community incitement and espionage.

Shortly later they started marching through the road snaking from the Court area in the leafy suburb northeast of the Arusha city centre when armed police arrived and ordered them to halt the march.

There was a brief spat as the men and women in robes claimed they were not protesting but merely walking to the RPC’s office, about one kilometre away.It was then that the march was halted

 The arrest of advocate Ngalula has come at the height of rising tension in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region, following a crackdown down on civil society organisations due to long standing land disputes.

The soft-spoken lawyer had gone to the area to follow up a case involving his clients who had been earlier arrested and detained by the police for several days in police cells without being formally charged.

But Ngalula, who was expected to free his detained clients, ended up himself being arrested, temporarily detained and questioned by the security organs last Friday on alleged incitement and espionage.

Pressure by the civil society, lawyers and human rights activists led to his release on police bail with directions that he should report back to the police station on Monday for statement taking.

On Monday, he recorded, the embattled lawyer and human rights defender reported at the Loliondo police station but in an unclear circumstances he was ordered to leave the police cell unconditionally, a development received with glee by the legal fraternity.

Being a free man with no chargde sheet on his neck advocate Ngalula assumed his role and proceeded to the Loliondo District Court to resume his noble duty as a consel for the accused whom he had information were to appear in Court.

Reports from Loliondo had it that it was at the subsequent task that the advocate was  re-arrested again (on Monday) complete with his full court attire while waiting to represent his clients.

TLS, the premier bar association in the country, in a statement to the media yesterday condemned the the brutal treatment of an advocate of the High Court of Tanzania who was going about his noble duty in the area.