19851002 TZCA Dar es Salaam

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL Op TANZANIA CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 48 OF 1984 Between IDIRISA IBRAHIM. o o C o o O • APPELLANT And THE REPUBLIC. • RESPONDENT •. o • • ., • • o • • (Appeal frOm the conviction of the.)-tigh C('ltirt of Tanzania at Tanga) CH~E.,D. Sisya, dated J~J the 2nd day of February, 1984 · ' '•: . . . ·--·--·--~ .. ..__, in ··- . Criminal Sessions Ca.~ No. 15 Of 1983 JUDGf1!;:NT.0F THE COURT MUSTAFA, J.A.:: The. appellant pleaded guilty to manslaughter and· was duly convicted :on h.i,.s own plea and sentenced t"> 10 years imprisonment. -. ·_-.( ' He was apparently arrested en 19012.,82 and was kept in custody and, he was sentenced ·on 2.2. 84,,'. On the evening -,in questi-cn the appellant was celebrating the birth of ,a' child to his wife in a pombe club. He told' his sister . . to: purchase-. .. two bottles of pombe l, . for_ . , the celebration. · ~ The deceased, who_•was the appellant's brother, also turned up, and seized the two bottles of pombeo The.deceqsed took exception. to the appellant'for not informing him ('If the happy event. A quarrel ensued and tb~re was a_ fist fight between the appellant and the deceased.· By that time both of them were drunk. The 0;ppella~t was injured on the mouth. The appellant rushed into the club hou~e, seized a plece of wood and struck the deceased on the head, f rat:turing the par fetal area, da~?ging the b'rairi. The deceased died the following day of brain damage and bleeding .. The appellant was the victim of an attack, and the deceased was Clearly the aggressoro In the course uf the fight the appellant suffered a mouth injw::-yo They were in or just outside ... _; .,.,,. ;2 a. pombe clttb, anq botti ,we;t"e _ratnec drunk. The appellant rushed in and picked up a piece of wood., an<i struck the deceased. The deceased was struck on the he~d in the parietal area., and his brain was damaged .. The appellant must have struck still in the heat of passion and 1in th,e coµrse of a fight. We have no evidence as to the size and weight of the pi.ece of wood" The appellant is a first offender and had pleaded guilty and ha.d been in custody .for about 15 mPnths before be,ing conviic,ted and sentenced. In our view the sentence ·of 10 years ;imprisonment in the cj,rc.umstances is clearly ma-nifestly excessive. We ,reduae the sentence to 5 years ·imprisonment;. DATE,P_:·a:-t DAR ES SALAAM :this 2nd day Of October.., 1985 • .,,,,,, ...._ , ~..... \.,_ .. \ ·, 'A, MUSTAFA JU.STICE OF APPEAL Lo Mo MAKAME JVSTICE OF ArrEAL Ro Ho KI SANG],. JUSTICE OF APPEAL