Police clamp down on protest in Dar es Salaam

Over 170 people were arrested and 11 taken to hospital during violent demonstrations in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, on 24 August, when riot police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of mainly Islamic protesters demonstrating against the detention of 28 year-old Khamis Rajab Dibagula for allegedly “defaming Christianity”, according to news reports. Khamis had been sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Morogoro District magistrate’s court after reportedly saying Jesus Christ was not God, the ‘Guardian’ newspaper reported. Dibagula was released late on Friday after the Tanzanian High Court ruled that he had received too harsh a sentence from the Morogoro magistrate. Judge Baxtou Chipeta was quoted as saying that a one-year sentence would have been appropriate for the offence. “The judgement needed to consider the need of maintaining peace and religious harmony in the country,” he added.

Dar es Salaam Police Commander Alfred Tibaigana denied reports that two people had been killed during the demonstrations against Khamis’ conviction, the newspaper reported. Forty-one people were on Monday brought to court before Kisutu Resident Magistrate Afumwisye Kibona to answer criminal charges arising from the demonstrations. Assistant Superintendent of Police Reinhard Lisapita requested that none of them be granted bail as investigations were incomplete, and because if the accused persons were released, people would be afraid to go about their business because they would be scared stiff. “The believers are still in the process of continuing with disturbances, because they have distributed leaflets calling on their comrades to make joint plans to invade police stations and cause a breach of the peace,” the ‘Guardian’ on Tuesday quoted Lisapita as saying. Kibona accepted the prosecution’s application and set 5 September as the date for the case to be revisited. The charges brought by police included: unlawful assembly, neglecting or refusing to obey a lawful order, unlawful demonstration in public places, arson, grievous bodily harm, malicious damage to property and walking in public while armed, the report added.