19890914 TZCA Dar es Salaam3

II\ TEE COURT Op APPE1-u, OF T,,NZANIA AT DAR ES Si~LA,'iM CRIMINAL _APPEAL NO •. 129 Op 1988 B E T WE E N YlSUF MOHAMED HILALI. o • • o APPELLANT A N D THE REPUBLICo O e e O • 0 • RESPONDENT U,ppeal from the conviction and • sentence ' Of the High Court Of Tanzania at Song(~a ( Rub a ma, J. ) dated the 13th day of July, 1988 in Economic Crimes Case No. 3 of 1987 JUDGMENT OF THE COURT In the c~s~ from which this appeal comes the appellant YUSUFU MOH\.ME:D HILjJ,l Wes charged.,,along witth eight_other persons with Being . in ).nlawful posse.ssicn of 8overnment trcphy, contrary to sections 67(1), (2)(b) ~nd 78(1) of the Wildlife Conservation Act, 1974, read tog3ther with Pc-ra 16 of the First -Schedule to the Economic and Org~nized ·crime Central Act, 1984. At the end of the·day, however, only the present respondent was found Guilty. He was duly convicted and s~ntenced tc imprisonment for fifteen years. In his appeal to . this Court he cppeared in per5on while Mr. Mwanyika, Principal St,te Attorney, represented the resp_ondent Republic. The he2rfng cf this appeal was quite brief •. Relying on this Court I s dcci sic-n in 0MARI MOHAMED SH0SHI Vo R. (Criminal Appeal No 0 130 of 198E) Mr. Mwanyika submitted that the Economic Crimes Court J' 2 had n,) jurisdictic..n to try the case and so hE~ asked us to quash the proceedings. Th~ respondent, a layman, had ho reply to this. Mro Mwanyika correctly stated what the law was at the material tim2. We fully explained the legal· position in a number of appeals, am,mg thGm :;._ SHCSHI relied on by the learned Principal State Attorney; and D.Pol?o v~_,_BEm~J1RD NJi,VIKE (Criminal Appeal No. 32 of 1987). In brief it'is thnt, Being in Unlawful Possession of Government trophy per se w3s not at the material time an economic offence. We fully set out our vi;;ws thorc;in c:nd it would be pointless to repeat them here. We only wish t•.:) point cut that .the position has since changed as a result of the enactment cf the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 1989t Bein~ _found in unlawful possession of trophy is now a scheduled offence under the Econcrr,ic and Organized Crime Act, 1984. For the purposes of this appe2l we: ere of course dealing with the position as it .was then, not as it is nowo At the particular time in question thP- Economic Crimes Court h~d n~ jurisdiction to try the case. We acccrdingly allow this,, appeal by quashing the proceedings and s0tting 2.side the sentence imposed. We order that the appelJ,ant :.e chcirged afresh in a court of t..Ompetent jurisdiction. We note, incidentally, th2t the appellant is otherwise lawfully incarcerated on account of scme 0ther matter. D,\TED at Di,R ES Si',LAAM this 14th day of September, 1989. L. M. MAKAME JUSTICE OF i-PPEAL Ro H. KI°SANGA JU.TICE OF APPEAL Ao M. A. OMAR JUSTICE OF APPEAL·