Mbowe group: Ruling today

THE outcome of the bail application for Chadema’s National Chairman Freeman Mbowe and fellow senior party leaders who are facing a sedition case will be known today when the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam delivers its ruling.

On Tuesday, Principal Resident Magistrate Wilbard Mashauri ordered the accused persons to go to remand until today to allow him compose his ruling on bail following their arraignment on eight counts of sedition and raising discontent and ill-will for unlawful purposes. Other charges against the accused persons include unlawful assembly, rioting after proclamation and inciting the commission of offence.

All accused persons have denied the charges. The prosecution said investigations into the matter had been completed. Mbowe is charged jointly with Vicent Mashinji (Secretary General) John Mnyika (Deputy Secretary General-Mainland), Salum Mwalimu (Deputy Secretary General-Zanzibar), Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban Member of Parliament) and Tarime Urban MP Ester Matiko.

Before adjournment of the trial on Tuesday, the prosecution team, comprising Principal State Attorneys Faraja Nchimbi, Zainabu Mango, Senior State Attorney Patrick Mwita and State Attorney Wankyo Simon, requested the court to deny bail to the accused persons for public interests and safety of the society.

Giving more details on their objection to bail the accused persons, the trial attorneys asked the court to weigh the interests of individuals (accused persons) and that of the society before exercising its discretion to grant bail or otherwise. They forcefully submitted that the interests of the nation and safety of the society would be at stake if the accused persons were bailed out.

The trial attorneys said that although the court had discretion to consider bail to the accused persons, such discretion must be exercised judiciously. According to the prosecutors, the court must consider the seriousness and circumstances of offences involved and that the way such crimes were allegedly committed led to jeopardising national security and for the entire public in totality.

They maintained that the offences against the accused persons were very serious and that if the court granted them bail, and thereby allowing them to rejoin the society where seditious statements were made, the rights of the society would be jeopardised. However, the defence team comprising advocates Peter Kibatala and Hekima Mwasiku, vehemently opposed the prosecution’s line of submissions, maintaining that their clients were entitled to bail as the offences were bailable.

They told the court that the reasons cited by the prosecution were not contained in Section 148 (5) of the Criminal Procedure Act which governed bail issues. The defence submitted that the reasons given by the prosecution to object bail were matters of evidence which needed to be supported by an affidavit.

According to the advocates, no such evidence was submitted by the prosecution to back up the objection to bail, and that the right of an individual could not be taken away by statements from the bar. They submitted that no material have been placed before the court to deny bail to accused persons.

The charge sheet shows that Mbowe alone was facing seven counts; Msigwa faces three counts, while the rest were facing two counts each. The prosecution alleged that the accused persons committed the offences on February 16, 2018 at Kinondoni Mkwajuni and Buibui Grounds in Kinondoni