THE former Commissioner General of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Harry Kitilya and two others had to be returned in remand custody because their cases could not push through as planned.
The court was informed that the file of the case was called up at the High Court in Dar es Salaam. Senior Resident Magistrate, Emilius Mchauru of Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court was pushed to adjourn the case, noting that the court had no jurisdiction to issue any orders due to the current development.
Earlier, the prosecution led by Senior State Attorney, Christopher Msigwa told the court that the case had come up for ruling on the appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) on Wednesday against the deleting out the money laundering count in the list of offences.
Magistrate Mchauru postponed the case to May 12, this year when it will come up for mention.
A few minutes later, the accused were returned before the court whereby Magistrate Mchauru informed the court that he received information from the In charge of the High Court that the matter should come for mention on May 3rd and not 12 as it was set before. Upon the new information, the case will come for mention on May 3, this year.
In the previous week, the defence attorney Ringo Tenga, Joseph Tadayo, Majura Magafu, Semu Anney, Alex Mgongolwa and Godfrey Nyaisa told Senior Resident Magistrate Emilius Mchauru that the count in question was fatally defective for not disclosing the offence of money laundering, as stated in the law. They said that the defect goes straight to the particulars of the offence and its fatality could not be cured under the law.
They argued that money laundering offence must contain four elements like illicit source placement, layering and integration. Magistrate Mchauru ruled that the money laundering count is struck on the ground that the offence was defective on its substance and particulars.
Before the ruling could be issued on bail application raised by advocate Magafu, the prosecution came up with a notice of appeal objecting the money laundering count of over 12bn/- payments from the list of offences.
Apart from Kitilya, other accused are former Miss Tanzania and Head of Investment Banking at Stanbic Bank, Shose Sinare and Sioi Graham Solomon, the former Chief Legal Counsel to the bank. The accused appeared before the court on April 1, this year. They were charged with eight counts including forgery, obtaining money by false pretence and money laundering, which the court dropped, leaving only seven counts.
Read more: http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/home-news/49378-court-date-set-for-former-tra-boss