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Mtikila files own case against Ditopile
2007-05-26 09:54:51
By Rosemary Mirondo
Reverend Christopher Mtikila has petitioned the High Court in Dar es Salaam to order for a fresh preliminary inquiry based on eye witness accounts against Ukiwaona Ditopile Mzuzuri for the brutal murder of Hassan Mbonde.
In his petition filed yesterday in the main registry, the petitioner asks the court to remand the accused in prison, so as to allow the due process of the law to take its own course.
The filing of the petition comes in the wake of what appears to be a promise which the petitioner publicly made sometime ago, shortly after the charge of murder against Ditopile was substituted for manslaughter and the defendant was subsequently granted bail by the High Court.
The court`s decision brought about varied and adverse reactions from prison inmates, who expressed their grievances by way of boycott of cases until the government intervened.
That apart, Dito`s case has hit another snag with Mtikila honouring his promise and accordingly taking up issues with the High Court\'s decision.
The petitioner asks the court to order all officers of the court who trampled upon the country`s Constitution and abused administration of justice as far as Ditopile`s case is concerned, be brought to book.
Rev. Mtikila further asks the court to be pleased to order all guards and escorts of the accused who acted in contempt of the court at Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court and the High Court, including those who took part in the barbaric acts against the press personnel while in the precincts of the High Court, be apprehended and brought to justice.
He also prays for an order granting leave for private prosecution of the accused and the guards and escorts who committed contempt of court, assaulted and wounded the press personnel while in the premises of the High Court.
The petitioner also asks for any other order or relief which the court may deem fit and just to grant.
A copy of the petition has been served to the Attorney General.
Rev. Mtikila put forward several arguments, including the fact that the persons who handled the preliminary inquiry deliberately fenced off the focus of the eye witnesses of the brutal murder of Hassan Mbonde by the accused.
The eyewitnesses are bound by law to appear and give evidence as against the alleged fabricated testimonies which were used in substituting the murder charge with manslaughter for the purpose of misleading the High Court to grant bail to the accused, Mtikila said in the petition.
The petitioner argued that the substitution of the murder charge to a lesser charge of manslaughter was deliberately intended to do away with the evidence by the eyewitnesses including Thomas Mwita, Masasi Lwenge, Yona Mwenge and Edrward Gervas which was recorded by the police immediately after the brutal killing on November 4, 2006 and who on the following day identified the accused at the parade conducted by the police.
He contended that there was no room to entertain the manslaughter charge because Ditopile murdered Hassan Mbonde with malice aforethought and therefore the question of bad luck cannot even be thought of.
``He had intended it as he consciously walked out of his car with a pistol and brutally killed Hassan, as he talked to the top of his voice that he had killed dogs of his type and therefore would finish him as well,`` he said in the petition.
Ditopile is alleged to have murdered Hassan Mbonde on November 4, 2006 with a pistol at Kawe/Bagamoyo road junction in Dar es Salaam.
He was originally charged with murder but the prosecution later substituted the count with manslaughter and their petition sailed through the court, whose decision the petitioner challenges.
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