{Former Old Kampala DPC Joram Tumwesigye has been convicted for beating Mr Andrew Lwanga, a freelance journalist attached to the defunct WBS TV.}
However, prosecution failed to prove the case of malicious damage against Tumwesigye prompting the presiding magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu to acquit him on malicious damage of Mr Lwanga’s camera.
Source:Daily Monitor
{Seven people appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday charged with publishing false information in relation to some top government leaders being listed by Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda of involving in drug abuse.}
They are Omary Makau, (23), a resident of Mgulani JKT, Juma Juma, (40), a tailor residing at Karatu NMC, Silvan Mushi, (29), a mechanic at Kigogo Mwisho, Hussein Pazi, (42), a taxi driver living at Kinondoni Mkwajuni, and Onesmo Benedicto, (35), a businessman at Saku Ilulu.
Others are Ramsley Mushy, (43), a trader at Kigogo Mbuyuni and Yona Stephano, (30), a food distributor living at Kasulu. The accused persons denied the charge before Principal Resident Magistrate Respicius Mwijage. They were granted bail on condition of each securing one surety to bail them out. Each surety was required to sign a bond of 5m/-.
The magistrate adjourned the trial to April 6, for mention, as investigations into the matter, according to the prosecution, were incomplete.
Senior State Attorney, Nassoro Katuga, for the prosecution, told the court that the accused persons committed the offence on diverse dates of February this year at different locations within the city of Dar es Salaam.
The prosecution told the court that false information was published in facebook and different whatsap groups, while knowing that such information was nothing than false.
Source:Daily News
{Former president acquitted of complicity in killings of hundreds of protesters during 2011 uprising that ended his rule.}
Six years after the uprising that ended his rule, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been acquitted over his alleged involvement in the killings of hundreds of protesters in 2011.
The Court of Cassation’s final ruling on Thursday could see Mubarak walk free.
After an all-day hearing, Judge Ahmed Abdel Qawi announced: “The court has found the defendant innocent.”
The Cairo-based court rejected demands by lawyers of the victims to reopen civil suits, leaving no remaining option for appeal or retrial.
Mubarak was accused of inciting the deaths of nearly 900 protesters in an 18-day uprising that ended when he stepped down on February 11, 2011.
He had been sentenced to life in 2012 but an appeals court ordered a retrial, which dismissed the charges two years later.
Mubarak, 88, has spent most of his time in a military hospital since his arrest in 2011.
He arrived to court on Thursday on a stretcher.
In January 2016, the appeals court had upheld a three-year prison sentence for Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges.
But the sentence took into account time served. Both his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed.
Uprising aftermath
Most of the charges brought against Mubarak’s government members have been dismissed while the country still recovers from the aftermath of the uprising.
Mubarak’s successor, democratically elected Mohamed Morsi, served for only a year before the military ousted and detained him in 2013, launching a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
Morsi and hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced in mass trials, although many of them are appealing the verdicts.
A former air force chief and vice president, Mubarak became president after fighters who had infiltrated the army shot dead president Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981, also wounding Mubarak.
He remained defiant throughout his trial.
“I did nothing wrong at all,” he told a private broadcaster after receiving the life sentence in 2012. “When I heard the first verdict I laughed. I said: ‘Ha!’.”
Apparently referring to economic growth, he said: “The last 10 years showed more results than the 20 years before, including telephones and so on, and then they turned against us.”
Source:Al Jazeera
{Gervais Ngombwa, who claimed he was a victim in 1994 genocide against Tutsi in order to gain refugee status, was actually ‘an active participant’, Iowa judge said.}
A Rwandan man who lied to gain entry into the US after helping slaughter scores of people during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi must serve 15 years behind bars before facing deportation, a judge ruled on Thursday.
Gervais Ngombwa, 57, “is a violent individual who presents a danger to the community”, US district judge Linda Reade said.
“There isn’t a doubt in my mind that he was an active participant, indeed a leader, of the genocide in Rwanda,” Reade told a courtroom in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Ngombwa lived and raised a family for two decades.
The sentence following his conviction for immigration fraud caps a case that the Anti-Defamation League has called one of the most significant US human rights prosecutions in recent years.
Federal prosecutor Rich Murphy said Ngombwa was a local leader of an extremist party during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi.
He said that Ngombwa wielded a machete as he personally butchered Tutsis, looted properties and drove a youth militia around the country to carry out mass killings of people seeking refuge in locations such as churches and an orphanage.
Murphy glared at Ngombwa across the courtroom as he described what he called the “unspeakable acts” he committed during the 100-day genocide.
Murphy said that Ngombwa had his own home and family protected by military forces “while he went out and killed”. Ngombwa fled the country rather than face justice, falsely claiming he was a genocide victim in order to gain US refugee status for himself, his wife and several relatives, Murphy said.
Murphy displayed a photo of skulls of victims that showed they had been clubbed to death as he urged Reade to consider their suffering in sentencing Ngombwa. He compared Ngombwa to notorious criminals such as mob boss Whitey Bolger who lived in hiding after committing “unfathomable” acts of violence.
Reade said she was convinced of Ngombwa’s guilt in the genocide but that she would leave punishment for those acts to authorities in Rwanda, where he is under indictment and will be deported after his sentence. She focused on the need to protect the public and the “aggravating factor” that several relatives gained entry into the US through Ngombwa’s lies.
The genocide allegations shocked acquaintances of Ngombwa in Iowa, where he was known as “Ken”, a devout Christian and a father of eight successful children.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has a unit dedicated to catching alleged human rights violators, has arrested 380 such individuals since 2003. But the prosecution was the first of its kind in the northern district of Iowa, said US attorney Kevin Techau.
Ngombwa was convicted at trial of falsely telling authorities that he was the brother of an exiled Rwandan prime minister and therefore subject to persecution. That claim was the basis of the decision to allow his family to resettle in the US in 1998 from a refugee camp in Tanzania where his family had been living.
Ngombwa worked as a school janitor and hotel employee and was active in his church. He had a clean record until 2013, when he was arrested for arson and insurance fraud after police said he intentionally burned down his home, which was built by Habitat for Humanity.
By then, investigators were looking into allegations that Ngombwa had participated in the genocide. He was indicted on immigration charges in 2014 after an investigation that included US agents based in South Africa, who traveled to find witnesses in Rwanda.
Ngombwa’s attorney, Ray Sheets, said his client denies involvement in the genocide or that he was a leader in the extremist MDR-Power party. He said Ngombwa was known as a good and kind person to his supporters.
At trial, Ngombwa denied claiming he was the brother of former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, who lives in exile in Belgium. He insisted he meant he was Twagiramungu’s “political brother”, agreeing with his positions.
Ngombwa waved to his children and friends as he slowly walked out of the courtroom in shackles.
Source:The Guardian
{Pro-Kurdish HDP files application at European Court of Human Rights over arrest of its leaders, Demirtas and Yuksekdag.}
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has filed an application at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the continued arrest of its co-leaders , Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
The application was filed in Strasbourg on Monday by a delegation including the party’s deputy leader Saruhan Oluc, group deputy chairperson Filiz Kerestecioğlu and MPs Mithat Sancar, Ertugrul Kurkcu and Osman Baydemir.
In a statement published on Monday, party officials said that the failure of Turkey’s Constitutional Court to carry out an investigation into its Yuksekdag and Demirtas’ imprisonment has necessitated an application to the ECHR.
A total of 13 HDP politicians were arrested in November 2016 on terrorism-related charges after their parliamentary immunity was lifted last March . 10 of these MPs, including the party’s co-leaders, remain in custody pending trial.
{{Referendum}}
In its application to the ECHR, the party argued that the continuing imprisonment of their co-leaders constituted “a violation of the right to freedom and security, freedom of speech and the right to free elections as protected by both the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights”.
The HDP, parliament’s third-biggest party, also said in its application that since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, 5471 people have been taken into custody and 1482 people have been arrested within the scope of operations targeting the HDP and its supporters.
The HDP said that the situation is “particularly critical as Turkey is now heading for a referendum”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has approved a constitutional reform bill earlier this month, in a move paving the way for the referendum on an amendments package that seeks to extend his powers.
The referendum is planned to take place on April 16.
The HDP claimed that the continued detention of its co-leaders and MP’s aimed to “target and punish the opposition working to organise an effective ‘No’ campaign during the referendum”.
“The process has become increasingly arbitrary and systematic and politically motivated,” the party said.
The first hearing of Demirtas will be held on April 28, 12 days after the constitutional referendum.
He faces trial in over 100 different cases that include charges of “managing a terrorist organisation,” and faces over 100 years in jail.
Turkey’s government has long been accusing the HDP of being the the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) political wing.
The United States and the European Union designate the PKK, an armed group that has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy since 1984, as a “terrorist organisation”.
The HDP denies direct links with the PKK and promotes a negotiated end to the Kurdish conflict, which has claimed hundreds of lives since a peace process, once led by Erdogan and the AK party, collapsed in 2015.
Source:Al Jazeera
{The High Court in Nairobi, Kenya has quashed a decision by the Kenya School of Law (KSL) to lock out Ugandan, South Sudanese, Tanzanian, Rwandese and Burundian students from KSL’s Advocates Training Programme (ATP).}
One needs to go through the ATP to practice law in Kenya.
Justice John M. Mativo said KSL’s decision violates Article 27 of Kenya’s Constitution, 2010.
“…the decision [by KSL] offends the petitioners constitutionally guaranteed rights…” Justice Mativo ruled on Monday, February 20.
The judgment – assuming Kenya’s Council of Legal Education (CLE) and KSL do not appeal – settles the matter of admitting non–Kenyans, who possess undergraduate Law qualifications, into KSL.
KSL had in November 2016 barred Ugandans and a South Sudanese from the ATP, arguing they that were ineligible.
Some of the students had undertaken their undergraduate law studies in either universities in Kenya or Uganda.
KSL’s decision came on the heels of a directive by CLE.
CLE, drawing from Kenya’s Advocates Act, had opined that for non-Kenyan East Africans to be admitted by KSL for the ATP they must have been admitted as advocates in their respective countries of origin.
Section 12 (a) of the Act says ‘No person shall be admitted as an advocate unless he is a citizen of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and (b) he is duly qualified according to Section 13 of the Act.
Section 13 (1) adds that ‘A person shall be duly qualified if (a) having passed the relevant examinations of any recognised university in Kenya he holds, or has become eligible for the conferment of, a degree in law of that university.’
The judge notes that KSL has in the past been admitting and training East Africans.
Indeed it has.
But in 2016, it started referring some of them to Riara University, a new, private tertiary institution, “for remedial classes” to reportedly meet the threshold prescribed under Part Two of the Second Schedule of Kenya’s Legal Education Act.
Though Ugandans went for the remedial classes, CLE later said non–Kenyans are ineligible for admission to Kenya’s Advocates Training Programne.
At some point last year, KSL, acting on directives from CLE, stopped up to 75 Ugandan students from sitting for bar examinations, prompting the students to petition the Milimani High Court.
The court ruled that they should be allowed to sit for their examinations.
Justice Mativo, however, said on Monday, “A decision which violates the Constitution [of Kenya, 2010] is void.”
Source:Daily Monitor
{Six people, including four foreigners, have been convicted of illicit drug dealings here and condemned to life imprisonment.}
The deterrent punishment comes amid intensified fight against the uses and dealings of the outlawed drugs in the country and the world over.
Moshi Zone High Court Deputy Registrar Bernard Mpepo said here over the weekend that the convicts had their charges decided in various cases. In one case, the Republic filed against a Nigerian born Italian, Vivian Edigin, who was accused of drug trafficking.
She was convicted and sentenced to life in jail. Another drug trafficking case involved three accused but the court set free two for lack of evidence while convicting and sentencing to life imprisonment a Tanzanian, Ramadhani Mgonja.
“The Court always ensures that justice is served… another case that we had involved the Republic against Slahi Maulidi Jumanne who was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment,” said the Registrar. Other people who were convicted of the same offences include a Kenyan, Josephine Mumbi Waithera, a Togolese Josiani Dede Creppy and a Nigerian, Joachim Ikechukwu Ike. A Tanzanian, Sofia Seif Kingazi, was sentenced to a 20-year jail term.
The court dismissed the case against Salim Mohamed Salim, according to Act No. 91 that provides for acquittal, re-arrest and arraignment of accused. He said the Republic has already brought back the case whose trial is going on.
Mr Mpepo said currently there are six pending cases in connection with illicit drugs, promising that the judgments may be pronounced by next month. Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade that involves cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws.
Drugs come in three basic forms; raw plant like cannabis or mushrooms, refined plant like heroin or cocaine or synthetic like ecstasy or amphetamine. Plant-based drugs like heroin and cocaine tend to be produced in the areas where the opium and/or coca leaves grow because the plants need special conditions.
Source:Daily News
{Portuguese prosecutors on Thursday charged Angolan Vice President Manuel Vicente with corruption over allegations he bribed a magistrate with roughly 760,000 euros ($800,000) in 2012 to drop two investigations against him.}
Vicente, who was the president of Angolan national oil company Sonangol at the time of the alleged crimes, is charged with bribery, money laundering and document falsification, the public prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
His alleged accomplices, his lawyer Paulo Blanco and his business representative in Portugal, Armindo Pires, were also charged over the affair, as was the Portuguese magistrate who he is accused of having bribed, magistrate Orlando Figueira.
Figueira, who was arrested in 2016 and is currently under house arrest, was charged with accepting bribes, document falsification, money laundering and violation of the confidentiality of an official investigation.
Authorities seized about 512,000 euros which the magistrate had placed in bank accounts and safes in Portugal and Andorra as part of their investigation dubbed “Operation Fizz”, the prosecutors’ office said.
According to Portuguese media reports, one of the investigations which Figueira allegedly dropped in exchange for cash centred on the origin of funds which Vicente used to buy a luxury apartment in a Lisbon suburb.
The Angolan vice president will be notified of his indictment through an official letter sent to the authorities in Angola, an oil and diamond rich former Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa, the prosecutors’ office said.
Vicente has denied any involvement in the affair, saying shortly after Figueira’s arrest that he had “absolutely nothing to do with any payment”.
{{‘Never been questioned’}}
Vicente’s lawyer Rui Patricio said Thursday that his client had not been notified of any charges being brought against him.
“I am astounded that my client has been accused, not only because he had nothing to do with the facts mentioned but also because he has never even been questioned about them,” Patricio said in a statement sent to Portuguese news agency Lusa.
The fact that Vicente was not questioned “invalidates the (legal) process,” he added, according to Lusa.
In 2012, attempts to investigate alleged money laundering and tax evasion by several Angolan officials in Portugal sent a chill in relations between the two countries, which have strong economic ties.
Portugal is Angola’s main source of imports and Portuguese companies are active in banking and construction in the vast African country.
In turn, Angolan investors including state oil company Sonangol — currently headed by billionaire businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos — have built up significant stakes in Portugal’s top telecommunications firms and banks.
Dos Santos announced earlier this month he will not run in elections in August, signalling the end to 37 years in power and naming his Defence Minister Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco as the candidate to succeed him.
Until news of the corruption scandal emerged last year, Vicente had been strongly tipped as a potential successor to Dos Santos, who has ruled Angola since 1979.
Angola’s vast oil wealth has not trickled down to the masses and critics accuse both dos Santos and his family of amassing huge wealth by siphoning off state funds.
Source:Daily Monitor
Magistrate Patrick Chirwa has dismissed the case on the grounds that Rwanda is not one of the designated countries that are mentioned in the Extradiction act of Malawi laws.
This comes after court last week asked both the defence and State to submit their views on the issue.
In its submissions state lawyer Steven Kayira told the court that the removal of a person includes those countries in Commonwealth like Rwanda and that the act intended not to include its treaty agreement between countries but arrangement between Commonwealth law and that Section 3 of the extradiction act gives power to the minister to enter into special agreement on extra-diction.
Kayuni told the court that genocide is also an extraditable offence under the extradiction act which include murder as an offence that one can be extradited for and he described genocide as killing that falls under the murder.
In their submissions the defence team led by Wapona Kita told the court that the case at hand is being tried using the Extradiction act of Malawi and by virtue of the issuing of Authority to proceed by the Home affairs minister as stipulated in the act, the case can’t continue using the Commonwealth treaty if Rwanda is not one of the countries in agreement with Malawi under the act.
Kita argued that even in 1998 when the act was being revisited genocide had already took place in Rwanda, Malawi government still didn’t include genocide and Rwanda part of the act.
He told the court that the law is basic and it’s a wakeup call to a state, ministers to go and visit the powers and make provisions with Rwanda.
In his ruling today, SRM Patrick Chirwa agreed with the state that genocide falls under the murder and that it is indeed an extraditable offence according to the extradiction act of Malawi.
His worship Patrick Chirwa however, agreed with Kita’s argument that the Rwanda is not a designated country for extradition under the Extradition Act and dismissed the case .
He then set Murekezi free but said he will still be in custody for another case of ACB which he is answering.
In an interview with Nyasa Times, State lawyer Kayuni while agreeing with the ruling he said they will likely come back to the court with the matter if the Malawi government enters into the agreement with Rwanda and gazzeted in the Extradition Act.
Defence lawyer Kita expressed satisfaction with the ruling saying it is well reasoned and grounded in law.
Source:Nyasa Times
{Mexican immigrant, protected from deportation under programme established in 2012, sues government after being arrested.}
A Mexican immigrant is suing the US government after being arrested, even though he has special status protecting him from deportation.
Daniel Ramirez, who has no criminal record, was arrested in his father’s home in Seattle on Friday. His lawyers say the arrest violates his constitutional rights to live and work in the US without the fear of arrest and deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) arrived at the home to arrest Ramirez’s father, but also took him into custody, even though he has a work permit under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, court documents said.
The DACA programme was established in 2012 to protect children, who were brought into the US without documents, from deportation. It allows recipients, sometimes called “the dreamers”, to attend school and work.
Ramirez’s lawyers say this could be the first time under US President Donald Trump that a person covered by DACA has been taken into immigration custody.
ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said in a statement that Ramirez, 23, had told agents he was a gang member and was taken into custody for being a “risk to public safety”.
In response, one of Ramirez’s lawyers said that his client “unequivocally denies being in a gang”.
“While in custody, he was repeatedly pressured by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to falsely admit affiliation,” Mark Rosenbaum said.
Trump, a Republican who took office on January 20, has promised a crackdown on the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, most of whom come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
US immigration authorities arrested at least 680 people across the country last week, and a move against DACA recipients like Ramirez would represent a significant broadening of immigration enforcement under Trump.
In an interview with ABC News last month, Trump said that his administration was devising a policy on how to deal with people covered by DACA, without indicating any concrete plans.
“They are here illegally. They shouldn’t be very worried. I do have a big heart. We’re going to take care of everybody. We’re going to have a very strong border,” Trump said at the time.
Rallies were planned in response to Ramirez’s detainment by grassroots movements, such as United We Dream and One America, asking for his immediate release.
Source:Al Jazeera