THE Director of Public Prosecutions in Zanzibar has lost an appeal he lodged to challenge the release of 12 officials allegedly linked with sinking of MV Spice Islander I in 2011 that left more than 229 people dead.
This follows the decision by the Court of Appeal panel under the chairmanship of Chief Justice, Mohamed Chande Othman to uphold some grounds of objections presented by advocates for the officials, who stood for trial on manslaughter charges before the High Court.
“We accordingly uphold the preliminary objection, declare the purported appeal incompetent and strike it out,” the panel also comprising Justices; Nathalia Kimaro and Kipenka Mussa declared.
In their objections, advocates, Hamid Mbwezeleni, Dr Masumbuko Lamwai, Capt Ibrahim Bendera and Abdallah Juma , argued that the Captain of the sea vessel, Said Kinyanyite, as the first respondent in the criminal appeal, is dead and was never tried before the High Court.According to the advocates, there were several other shortcomings on the notices of appeal lodged by the DPP to fault the decision given on June 30, 2014, by Zanzibar Chief Justice, Omar Othman Makungu before the High Court at Vuga, thus offending the provisions under the Court of Appeal Rules.
In its ruling, the panel agreed with the submissions by the defence that indeed the captain of the vessel was wrongly included in the impugned notices of the appeal and having closely scrutinized the submissions by the parties, such notices could not be cured even if the name of the captain is deleted.
The justices noted further that the notice of appeal erroneously stated that the impugned order ‘dismissed’ the case, while the intended and proper order being appealed against had ‘discharged’ the accused persons under section 227 of the Criminal Procedure Act during the trial.
The accused on the matter were Said Abdalla Kinyanyite, who was the Captain of the vessel, Abdallah Moh’d Ali, the Chief Officer of the ship and Yussuf Suleiman Issa, a shareholder and Chief Supervisor with the vessel.
Others were Simai Nyange Simai, the Safety Officer of counting clerk of Pax and Cargoes in the Department of Registrar of Ships in Zanzibar Maritime Authority (ZMA), Haji Vuai Ussi, the Director General with ZMA and Abdallah Mohamed Abdallah, the Registrar of Ships.
In the same boat were Juma Seif Juma, the Ships Inspector, Hassan Mussa Mwinyi, Transport Clerk employed with Zanzibar Ports Corporation, Shaib Said Moh’d, the Ticket Collector and Salim Said Mohamed, who is shareholder and Executive Director employed with Visiwani Shipping Co. Limited.
The rest are Makame Hasnu Makame, the non-sailing Chief Engineer and Shareholder employed by the said Visiwani Shipping Company and Jaku Hashim Ayoub, the shareholder of Al-Ghubra Marine Service Limited.
It was alleged that the accused committed the manslaughter offences on September 9, 2011 at about 21.30 hours at Malindi Port in the Urban District within the Urban West Region of Unguja, having the responsibility and duty of care for the passengers and their cargoes in the ship.
According to the prosecution, the accused negligently failed to discharge their duties by leaving the ship to carry large number of passengers and cargoes beyond its capacity without considering the safety of passengers and their cargoes.
As a result, the prosecution had alleged, such negligence caused MV Space Islander I to sink at Nungwi in the Northern Region of Unguja causing the death of its 229 passengers.
/Daily News.
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