Ex-SSP Bageni files against death verdict

 

SENIOR Superintendent of Police (SSP) Christopher Bageni has appealed before the Court of Appeal against the death verdict that the High Court imposed on him.

He has asked the court to review the September 16, 2016 verdict by a three-justice panel that convicted him over the murder of three mineral dealers from Morogoro region and a Dar es Salaam-based taxi driver. 

 

The applicant has advanced several grounds to fault the judgment of Justices Bernard Luanda, Sauda Mjasiri and Semistocles Kaijage. He claims, among others, that the trial court denied him the right to be heard when evaluating the evidence on record by solely relying on testimony of prosecution witnesses.

The applicant further claims that there was error on the face of record committed by the court when evaluating the evidence on record, leading to miscarriage of justice to him. In their judgment, the justices convicted Bageni and freed Assistant Commissioner of Police Abdallah Zombe, Assistant Superintendent of Police Ahmed Makelle and Corporal Rajabu Bakari in relation to the killings.

The police officers were charged with four counts of killing Sabinus Chigumbi and his relatives Ephrahim Chigumbi and Mathias Lunkombe from Mahenge in Morogoro region and Juma Ndugu, the taxi driver at Manzese area in Dar es Salaam. Appeal Court findings followed an appeal by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), faulting the September 17, 2009 decision by the then High Court Judge Salum Massati, who freed all the police officers from the murder charges.

The justices noted that there was no doubt that the four people were cruelly killed one by one by the police using a gun on January 14, 2006, at Pande Forest, on the outskirts of the city.

They, therefore, queried on whose order and for what purpose the deceased were sent to the forest where there was no house. According to the justices, the evidence showed that it was Bageni who had given the order.

The justices derived their findings from the defence evidence under oath by Corporal Bakari whose testimony was described as truth and subsequently corroborated by the conducts of Bageni and other senior police officers during the trial.

Among the conduct of Bageni, they said, include giving false account on the place where the deceased were killed. The justices noted that the convict had told the court that the deceased were killed at Sinza while exchanging fire with the police.

The false evidence relating to the matter, the justices observed, was also given by two other senior police officers, ASP Mkumbi and ASP Ubisimbali, who had testified for the prosecution’s case.

However, the justices noted, the evidence given by the police officers differed with other prosecution witnesses, Kisa Mohamed and Rashid Ally, who had told the court that there was no exchange of fire at Sinza on the alleged day.

They pointed out that Bageni had showed the place of the fire shootings at “Ukuta wa Posta” at Sinza and presented nine cartridges to cement his position, but the truth revealed by Corporal Bakari showed that the cartridges were collected at Bunju after firing on the air.

“(Bageni) was the architect of the killings. He was present at Pande Forest and being the senior police officer, we are satisfied that he is the one who ordered the deceased be taken to the forest without any justifiable reason,” the justices ruled.

They said that the deceased were sent at the forest for the purposes of accomplishing the evil act and they were killed on presence of Bageni. “We allow the appeal against (Bageni), set aside the acquittal and substitute with conviction of murder. He is hereby sentenced to death by hanging,” they declared.