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Magistrate withdraws from Keenja daughter`s case
2008-05-16 09:45:54
By Correspondent Rosemary Mirondo
The presiding magistrate in the 300m/- theft case facing the daughter of Ubungo Member of Parliament Charles Keenja and two others has withdrawn from the case following the complainant`s expression of having no confidence in him.
Magistrate Makube withdrew yesterday from conducting the case at the Kisutu Resident Magstrate`s Court in Dar es Salaam.
Before withdrawing, the magistrate said he had recieved a letter from his superior which had been addressed to the judge in charge by the complainant saying she was not satisfied with the way the case was being conducted.
In the letter to the judge, which the magistrate read out in court, the complainant, Li Jinglan, alleged that she had seen the third accused, Damas Ngoiya, in magistrate Makube`s office.
Moreover, she further charged, apart from the magistrate and the accused, the other person in the office was the magistrate`s secretary, something which made her doubt if justice in the case would be served.
Hence, the magistrate said, he was withdrawing from the case so that justice should be seen to be done.
Earlier, before the magistrate withdrew from the case, the prosecution had stated that they had two witnesses and were ready to proceed, but due to the turn of events, the case was adjourned till the magistrate in charge assigns it to another magistrate.
In the main case the accused are Eleese Keenja, NHC Tabora regional manager Damas Madwari Ngoiya (47) and Josephat Leema Nyambekwa (48), who is the managing director of Manyoni Auctioneer Company Limited.
In the case, the accused are alleged to have conspired, at an unknown time and place in Dar es Salaam with other people not in court, to steal 333,300,000/-, property of a Chinese national, Li Jinglan.
It is further alleged that on May 9, last year, along Haile Selasie Road in Kinondoni District, the accused and others bnot in court broke into an NHC apartment rented by Jinglan with intent to steal.
The Chinese had been living in the apartment number 103 situated on plots number 3, 5,7 and 9.
It is also alleged that, upon entry into the apartment, the accused and their accomplices stole from therein several items including 74 bundles of clothes valued at USD 210,000, one Dell computer valued at USD 1,800 and one digital video camera valued at USD 1,500.
Other stolen items, according to the prosecution, include one digital camera, five wooden cupboards, wooden beds, one metal cupboard, two pairs of dumbbell, rings and pieces of diamond, tanzanite and ruby minerals and several other household items.
The case was adjourned to May 26, this year.
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