Monday, 17 February 2014

Dismiss case against Premier, defence asks

The legal counsel defending Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in a constitution case yesterday asked the high court to dismiss the petition filed by two institutions.

On August 1, 2013, the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) in collaboration with the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) filed a petition against Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda for the remarks he made in Parliament last June. The petition came following a statement issued by the Premier while attending the August House on June 20, last year where he called upon law enforcers to beat up whoever failed to obeyed a lawful order.
Yesterday, the legal team led by deputy attorney general George Masaju told a three-judge bench led by Principal Judge Fakihi Jundu that the petition did not include the signatures of institutions that brought a suit in court.
“Any application submitted before the court should abide by proper legal procedures failure to which it should be nullified because already this court has made various verdicts on matters similar to this suit,’’ he said.
In his submission that included citation of various similar cases, Mr Masaju told the court that the petitioners failed to abide by Section 58 and 59 of the Evidence Act which provides for facts of which the court takes judicial notice.
The legal discrepancies in the petition according to the deputy AG were enough to convince the court to quash and set aside the entire petition.
Judge Jundu adjourned the case until today and the respondents will submit the remaining counter arguments against the petition. Apart from Pinda the other respondent is the Attorney General Frederick Werema.

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