The verdict on whether 18 jailed opposition Civic United Front (CUF) members in Zanzibar, charged with treason, will be granted bail is due to be passed on 3 April, the presiding judge Garba Tumaka has announced. An independent source who attended the court session on Monday told IRIN that defence lawyers urged the court to drop the treason charges, arguing that Zanzibar had no legal authority to prosecute anyone for treason. Only the mainland government could do this, they said. However, the country’s chief prosecutor, Salum Tawfiq, said an act of treason could be committed in Zanzibar because it was a country with a “fully-fledged government”. He conceded that the charges presented in court earlier were “legally defective”.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article