The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided to take to the Court of Appeal the 10m/- bribery case involving former TBC Journalist Jerry Muro and two others.
Jerry Muro
This was revealed at the High Court when the case came for hearing before Judge Fauz Twaib on appeal lodged by the prosecution.
In the case, Muro and his colleagues are accused of conspiracy and receiving 10m/- bribe from an ex-accountant of Bagamoyo District Council, Michael Wage.
State Attorney Lillian Itemba requested the judge to stay the hearing of the appeal case as the DPP has already lodged a Notice of Appeal before the Court of Appeal to challenge the dismissal of the prosecution’s first ground of appeal, seeking orders for fresh hearing of the case in question.
“The DPP lodged the Notice of Appeal on May 14, 2013. We request the High Court to stay the proceedings until the Court of Appeal gives its decision. The decision of the Court of Appeal is likely to affect the hearing of the remaining grounds of appeal,” she requested.
But the judge queried the move taken by the prosecution because in his decision when determining the first ground of appeal and refused to refer back the case to the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam for fresh hearing, he never gave reasons for reaching such a conclusion.
The judge pointed out that he had said the reasons were reserved and would be given in the final judgment, after hearing other grounds of appeal advanced by the prosecution to challenge the acquittal of Muro and two others, Deogratius Mgasa and Edmund Kapama, in the case.
Senior Advocate Richard Rweyongeza also added his voice on the judge’s concern, submitting that what was given by the court was an “interrogatory decision” which was not subjected for appeal.
He, therefore, requested the court to continue hearing the remaining grounds of appeal in the matter. After hearing the parties, the judge said he would give his ruling on the request on July 1. In the appeal, the prosecution is asking the High Court to quash the judgment given on November 30, 2011, by Resident Magistrate Frank Moshi, acquitting the trio after concluding that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the charges against them beyond reasonable doubts.
The ground of appeal that was determined, which forms bases of the decision to be appealed against by the DPP, related to an error by the trial magistrate for not recording properly the court proceedings.
Other grounds of appeal that have remained include the failure by the trial magistrate to analyse evidence of prosecution witness, thus arriving into a wrong conclusion and the error in acquitting the three accused persons despite having sufficient evidence to convict them.
By FAUSTINE KAPAMA, Tanzania Daily News
