Ten villagers sentenced to death for brutal murder of watchman

Dar es Salaam. The High Court in Tanga has sentenced ten men to death by hanging for the horrific murder of a guard in Lulago Village, Kilindi Distric, Tanga Region.

In a landmark judgment delivered on Wednesday, Madam Judge Latipha Mansour said prosecution ‘has proved the case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt.’

The ten were accused of murdering Mbwana Salim in October 2013 after an angry mob that claimed to belong to Answari Sunni caste raided Lulago Village office to rescue their two brothers who were detained in there.

The victim was hired to guard the village office.

On the fateful day, the Answari Sunni Muslims from Lulago and Lwande villages joined forces and went to Mwenge area while armed with sticks and machetes to rescue their two Muslim brothers---Juma Omar Mtana and Rajab Omary Mtana---who were arrested and detained at the village office. The duo allegedly had a fight with the village chairman after they refused to pay levies after selling cardamoms (Iliki).

Upon reaching the village office, they could not find their two brother. It was at this point that they started rioting, demanding the release of their brothers.

They attacked the watchman with sticks and machetes.

Others slashed him at the back of his head. The rest of the group attacked him on the stomach.

“One of them who was carrying a machete slashed him on the stomach, and others took sunna after being ordered by their leader,” a witness had told the court.

They accused were arrested on different dates in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Dodoma and charged with the murder of Mr Mbwana.

At least 20 people were later charged with murder.

Those who were sentenced to death are Haji Omary Mtana, Khalid Sekintu, Omary Said, Toba Sekintu, Abdalah Mrisho, Mnyamisi Saidi, Abdulrahman Hassan, Juma Mtana, Ramadhan Mngumi and Jawa Mtana.

The court set free Ramadhan Miraji after the prosecution failed to prove charges against him.

Earlier, the 20 were charged of terrorism offences but later, the charges were changed to murder.

A witness had told the court that the followers of Answar Sunni had been jeopardising peace in the village of Lulago since 2012 after Haji Omari Mtana refused to pay levies on claim that he would not pay for the government of the infidels.

Then the leaders of the village sent in militias to arrest him and his brother, Juma Omary Mtana, who attacked the militias and the village leaders and injured them.

The police were informed about the incident and arrived to take the two brothers to the Songe Police Station in Kilindi District and thereafter the followers of Answar Sunna gathered in Lwande and Lulago wards before heading to the village office.

They were armed with firearms, machetes and sticks while shouting and uttering words like “Takbir” and “Allah Akbar” and when they reached the village office they attacked the guard (militia) of the office and killed him instantly.

The witness was present at the scene and witnessed the entire incident and was able to recognise some of those who participated in killing the guard and he mentioned their names and explained who did what and who killed Salim.

Another witness recounted that after the deceased had been killed, the 17th accused, Sheikh Mhadu, directed the Sunni followers to take Sunna.

In giving the directive, Sheikh Mhadu was overheard saying, “Everyone should come to take the Sunna, you have defeated the infidels today”, and due to that directive, the attackers went to slash the already injured parts of the body of the deceased.

The witness went far by naming the man called Master as the one who was armed with the gun and fired in the air so that the villagers would not save Salim.

The 5th and 6th witnesses gave similar evidence of how the attacking group implemented the murder, but the sixth witness told the court that when he heard them say Takbir and others responding Allah Akbar, he went to hide himself about 30 meters away.

Judge Latipha said the testimony of the four witnesses clearly linked the accused persons with the murder, except Ramadhan Miraji alias Master.

“The identification of the 16th accused person (Ramadhan Miraji) was not clear and it is suspicious and thus giving the accused an advantage. He was not properly identified and therefore he was not among those who were present in that illegal gathering,” the judge told the court.

“All the other defendants were seen, known and identified by the witnesses. There is no reason not to ground conviction based on the evidence of those witnesses who witnessed everything in broad daylight, those who witnessed how the killings took place,” said the judge.

Judge Latipha said another valuable evidence came from the confession by the 19th accused, Juma Mtana, who, in his statement, admitted being at the scene of the incident, participating in the murder and naming other people he was with.

In his confession, the witness told the court of how the accused persons went to the scene armed with weapons and with one goal of attacking employees of the “infidel” government, who, according to their faith, are people who do not believe in Islam.

“It is the accused persons who attacked the deceased mercilessly using sticks and machetes and there were several blows on him, and after killing him, they escaped to hide themselves in Morogoro, Dodoma and others remained in the village.”

“They had evil intentions, so it doesn’t matter who did what in the violence. Since they were there and since it has been proved that all the defendants gathered and went to the scene of the incident, they had a common goal to commit a crime.”

“The prosecutions’ evidence was watertight, there were no missing links  as suggested by counsels for the defence, and the little discrepancies that occurred such as the time when the accused were taken to Dodoma Central Police Station  from the points of their arrest, as to who did what during the attack, and discrepancies on the names of some of the accused persons or names of the deceased, and also discrepancies in the evidence of the doctor who performed post examination of the decease, all these discrepancies did not go to the root of the matter and could not have shaken the weight of the evidence given  by the prosecution in their totality,.

“So long as the accused were seen and identified at the crime scene and there was proof that they participated attacking the deceased to his demise, with the common intention to commit a crime in an unlawful assembly, any other minor discrepancies in the evidence of the prosecution creates no doubt that the prosecution evidence carries weight,” said the judge.