‘Scorpion’ case takes new twist, Court orders fresh hearing of appeal
THE Court of Appeal has ordered fresh hearing of appeal lodged by Salum Njwete, alias Scorpion, who was jailed seven years and ordered to pay 30m/- compensation to Barber, Said Mrisho, for causing him blindness by chopping off his eyes.
Justices Mwanaisha Kwariko, Rehema Kerefu and Issa Maige reached into such a decision after nullifying the judgment issued by the High Court for failure to consider some of grounds of appeal presented by Scorpion to challenge the findings of the trial court, the Ilala District Court in Dar es Salaam.
“We nullify the judgment of the High Court and quash the proceedings thereof as from March 28, 2019 to the date of judgment. We remit the case file to the High Court before a different Judge to rehear the appeal basing on the grounds of appeal and decide the same as a whole,” they declared.
During hearing of the appeal, Scorpion, the appellant, challenged the legality of the judgment of the High Court in not determining some of the complaints raised in the grounds of the appeal before it, including omission by the trial court to consider his defence and use of incredible evidence.
The justices noted in their judgment delivered recently in Dar es Salaam about six out of 13 grounds of appeal lodged by the appellant before the High Court were not considered at all, while some other four grounds were partly determined.
“The position of the law on failure to consider the grounds of appeal is settled. It renders the relevant appellate judgment null and void,” they said.
The justices, thus, found that the High Court denied the appellant a right to be heard in not considering, in its judgment, some of the complaints raised in the grounds of appeal. On that account, they found that the judgment of the High Court was a nullity.
At the District Court of Ilala at Samora, the appellant was charged with two counts of armed robbery and grievous harm. While he was acquitted of armed robbery, the appellant was convicted of grievous harm. He was sentenced to seven years in jail and ordered to pay 30m/-compensation to Mrisho.
On September 6, 2016, Said Mrisho, the victim, having spent almost the whole day at his hair cutting salon at Tabata Segerea in Dar es Salaam, hired a motorcycle (bodaboda) in understanding that he would be dropped at Tabata Relini area wherefrom he would take a bus to his residence.
Unexpectedly, the bodaboda rider took a different route and as a result, the victim was dropped at Buguruni Shell at around 22:40 hours, where he found some petty traders selling chickens.
As he was bargaining for price with one of the petty traders, the appellant appeared and assaulted him.
