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Sawaya trial postponed as magistrate is taken ill
2005-07-09 07:24:18
By Sifa Lubasi
The robbery case against businessman Rowland Sawaya and five other people was postponed yesterday without the Temeke District Court ruling whether or not the accused have a case to answer.
The ruling could not be delivered because the trial magistrate, Kwey Rusema, had taken the day off sick, stand-in magistrate Masaidi Mnzava said and added that hearing would continue next Wednesday.
The court was due to rule on whether the accused had a case to answer after both the defence and prosecution had presented their arguments.
Defence lawyers told the court last month that the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused were involved in an armed robbery and called for their acquittal.
They said none of the 12 prosecution witnesses had mentioned the use of a weapon in their testimonies.
’The first prosecution witness, Mr Isaac William, who is a security guard with Nchambi’s Transport, did not say whether he was threatened with a weapon and neither did he mention a knife, razorblade, panga or firearm in his testimony,’lead defence counsel Herbert Nyange told the court.
’If this court decides that our clients have a case to answer, then the charge will definitely not be armed robbery and they should thus be released on bail,’ he said.
But the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police Camillius Wambura, said in response to the plea that testimony given by some of the prosecution witnesses showed that there indeed was a robbery at the premises of Nchambi’s Transport Company Limited on the night of March 10, this year.
He said the first prosecution witness, Isaac William, who is a watchman with Nchambi’s Transport Company, had told the court that he was attacked by robbers who tied his legs with a rope and put a plaster over his mouth before breaking into the company’s warehouse and stealing various items worth tens of millions of shillings.
The rope and plaster used in the attack were tendered in court as exhibits, Wambura added.
He said William’s testimony was corroborated by the fourth prosecution witness, Isaac Bwiru, a storekeeper with Nchambi’s Transport Company, who told the court that he found the watchman bound and gagged when he reported for duty the following morning.
Sawaya, Kitwana Mnyika, Athumani Msemo, Felix Shayo, Prosper Njiro and Roland Kombe have been charged with conspiring to commit an offence and stealing property valued at 134m/- from Nchambi’s Transport Company premises after threatening the watchman on duty with a firearm.
They deny the charges against them but have been denied bail on the grounds that armed robbery was a non-bailable offence.
A seventh person, Sharifa Christopher, has been charged with receiving and possessing stolen goods. She has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
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