Court of Appeal to hear DPP’s Lwakatare case application

The Court of Appeal is today set to hear the application by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), opposing nullification of terrorist charges against the Director of Defence and Security for Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) Wilfred Lwakatare and another accused.

In the application, the DPP is requesting the appellate court, the highest temple of justice in the country, to call for records of the High Court and quash the decision given by Judge Lawrence Kaduri on May 8, last year.

Wilfred Lwakatare

The DPP seeks further from the appeals court 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.

On May 8, last year, Judge Kaduri ruled that particulars of offences instituted against Lwakatare, who is charged alongside Joseph Ludovick, do 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. “In order for the offences charged to be distinguishable from the Penal Code offences sufficient information to link the act with terrorist purpose should feature in the charge,” he had ruled.

Following such a decision, Lwakatare and Ludovick stood charged with only one count of conspiracy to commit an offence under the Penal Code for allegedly administering poison to Dennis Msack, the Managing Director of a private owned newspaper.

According to the prosecution, the two accused conspired on December 28, last year, at King’ong’o, Kimara Stop Over in Kinondoni District, in the city, to maliciously administer poison with intent to harm Mr Msacky.

The terrorist charges that were nullified include that of conspiracy to commit an offence, namely kidnapping, arranging and participating in a terrorist meeting and allowing a house to promote terrorism.

It was alleged by the prosecution that on December 28, 2012, at King’ong’o, Kimara Stop Over within the District and Municipality of Kinondoni in Dar es Salaam, jointly and together, Lwakatare and Ludovick conspired to commit an offence of kidnapping of Mr Msacky.

The prosecution charged further that on the same day and place in the city, the accused arranged and participated in a meeting, knowingly that the said meeting was concerned with an act of terrorism of kidnapping the editor of the private owned newspaper.

Source Tanzania Daily News