Court rejects DPP appeal on Lwakatare

Dar es Salaam. The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) challenging the nullification of terrorist charges against Chadema Defence and Security director, Mr Wilfred Lwakatare.

In the ruling delivered yesterday, a panel of three judges comprises judge Ibrahim Juma, Edward Lutakangwa and Engela Kileo, agreed with the grounds of objection filed by Lwakatare through his lawyer, Mr Peter Kibatala.

In the objection, Mr Kibatala advanced two grounds to fault the application in which the DPP is asking the court to call and revise records of the High Court.

He requested the Court of Appeal to dismiss the application in question because the DPP had not attached a copy of proceedings of the High Court, which is the subject of revision.

“The affidavit in support of the DPP’s application was defective because it contained extraneous matters,” the lawyer argued in his submission.

In his application, the DPP sought the Court of Appeals to examine records of the High Court for the purpose of satisfying itself as to correctness, legality or propriety of the ruling and orders made by Judge Lawrence Kaduri on May 8, last year.

“It is improper for the High Court to determine the validity of the provisional charge,” reads one of grounds of the application. Lwakatare and Joseph Rwezaura were charged last year. They became the first Tanzanians to be charged under the Terrorist Act since its enactment in 2000.

On May 8, last year, Judge Kaduri ruled that particulars of offences instituted against Lwakatare and Rwezaura did not show elements of terrorism as the law required.

He explained that a charge that can set in motion the machinery of justice has to contain reasonable information as to the nature of the offence charged.

The judge held, therefore, that there was an error in framing the charges against the accused person.

Following such a decision, Lwakatare and Rwezaura are now facing only one count of conspiracy to commit an offence of harming the managing editor of a private owned newspaper, Dennis Msacky at Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court.