Court to hear appeal on case against Mahalu next month
Dar es Salaam residents walk past the High Court building along Sokoine Drive. PHOTO| FILE
What you need to know:
- In his appeal which is set to be heard before Judge John Utamwa, the DPP advanced five grounds against the release of the former ambassador, including that the trial magistrate erred both in fact and law by holding that by signing two contracts the respondents committed no criminal offence.
Dar es Salaam. The High Court on September 2, this year, will start hearing an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) challenging the acquittal of Prof Costa Ricky Mahalu and one other person.
Prof Mahalu and Grace Martin, the embassy’s counsellor, were charged at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court with six counts, including that of stealing Sh2.5 billion after forging documents during the purchase of Tanzania’s embassy building in Rome.
However, on August 9, last year, Senior Resident Magistrate In-charge Ilvin Mugeta found the accused not guilty on the six counts. They were acquitted after prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
In his appeal which is set to be heard before Judge John Utamwa, the DPP advanced five grounds against the release of the former ambassador, including that the trial magistrate erred both in fact and law by holding that by signing two contracts the respondents committed no criminal offence.
The DPP stated that the trial magistrate erred in law by admitting and using inadmissible evidence to acquit the respondents. He further alleged that the magistrate erred in law by ignoring completely the prosecution’s evidence on conspiracy and the relevant legal principles to such cases.
“The trial magistrate erred in law in holding that the prosecution side has not proven the case beyond reasonable doubt,” the DPP stated. During the trial, the prosecution alleged that on September 23, 2002 at the Tanzania embassy in Italy, being government employees, the two used payment vouchers containing false particulars that the building in Rome cost 3,098,741.58 euros.
It was further alleged that Prof Mahalu used two contracts, with one showing that the sale price of the building was 1,032,913 euros and the other putting it at 3,098,741 euros, in a deliberate move to steal money from the government. But in his judgment, Magistrate Mugeta said he had found no direct evidence to substantiate allegations that the use of the two contracts amounted to a criminal offence.
