Kitilya, two mates seek faster probe of two-year plus case

ACCUSED persons facing a 12bn/-money laundering trial, who are charged jointly with former Commissioner General of Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Harry Kitilya, yesterday came up in arms over the prosecution’s failure to complete the investigations for more than two years now.

Stanbic Bank’s ex- Chief Legal Counsel Sioi Solomon and Head of Investment Banking Shose Sinare told Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam that what the prosecution was doing is nothing but “constructive incarceration.” “This is a planned constructive incarceration. We are starting the third year of suffering in prison.

Why should you arrest a person, put him in jail and then you start conducting investigations? This is totally unfair and unacceptable,” Solomon lamented. He requested the court to intervene in the endless song of incomplete investigations being sang by the prosecution to ensure the hearing of the case takes off so that each party could know one’s fate. The position was fully supported by Sinare, who is also former Miss Tanzania.

According to Sinare, when they were arrested over two years ago, the Director General with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) announced publicly that PCCB arrested them because the investigations into the case had been completed. “We are surprised that over two years have elapsed since we started coming to court from remand prison only to be told that investigations are incomplete. More surprisingly, the prosecution is not consistent.

Some state attorneys are saying investigations are complete, while others say they are not. Why is this?” she queried. The two accused persons were reacting to submissions presented by Senior State Attorney Mutalemwa Kishenyi, for the prosecution, when the case came for mention, that investigations were incomplete, but they were doing every possible means to ensure the process was finalized in time.

The magistrate agreed with the concerns raised by the accused persons that investigations into the matter were taking too long. He directed the prosecution to do something to make sure investigations were completed. Magistrate Shaidi adjourned the trial to April 25, for another mention.

In this case, apart from money laundering allegedly committed between March 13 and September 2015 within the city, Kitilya, Sinare and Solomon are also charged with conspiracy to commit an offence, forgery, uttering false documents and obtaining six million US dollars (about12bn/-) by false pretences.

The prosecution alleges that on diverse dates between August 2012 and March 2013, within the city of Dar es Salaam, the accused persons conspired with other people, who were not in court, to commit an offence of obtaining money by false pretences from the government