Hearing of case in the killing of Moshi tycoon next week

Moshi. The High Court of Tanzania in Moshi will next week start hearing a case of a prominent businessman, Mr Erasto Msuya, who was brutally killed on August 7, 2013.

About 50 witnesses from the prosecution side will testify for five consecutive days in the case which attracts the attention of many residents of the twin towns of Moshi and Arusha.

The accused armed with a shot gun shot 12 times at Msuya, the proprietor of various assets in the two cities and elsewhere in Mijohoro in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region.

High Court Judge Salma Maghimbi will preside over the case from Monday, when five advocates from Arusha and Dar es Salaam will defend six defendants in the case.

A schedule issued by the High Court Registrar in Moshi shows the defence counsels as Mr Hudson Ndusyuepo, Mr Majura Magafu, Mr Emmanuel Safari and Mr John Lundu, while the prosecution side will be led by Principal state attorney Neema Mwanda assisted by Abdallah Chavula.

The state attorneys told the court on February 10, this year, that they were intending to summon 50 witnesses and submit 40 exhibits including the gun.

The killing of the tycoon, they said, occurred on July 26, 2013, in Arusha where a plan to pay Sh5 million to each of the alleged killers and Sh3 million to each of those operating behind the scene was hatched.

They alleged that Mr Shariff Mohamed was the ring leader, who coordinated the killing and paid the money required for buying new mobile phone lines used in arranging the killing, including calling Msuya at the scene.

Mr Mohamed had also bought motorcycles used for carrying the alleged killers to the scene and disappeared from the area. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Besides Mr Mohamed, other accused in the case and their nick names in brackets are Shaibu Jumanne (Mredii), Mussa Mangu, Jalila Zuberi (Said), Karim Kihundwa, Sadick Jabir (Msudani) and Ally Mussa (Mjeshi).