ONE MORE JOINED IN BARCLAYS BANK TANZANIA SH400 MILLION HEIST

THE number of people allegedly linked to the over 400m/- armed robbery at Barclays Bank, Kinondoni Branch, has increased to 12 following the arraignment of one more accused person at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates' Court in Dar es Salaam.

State Attorney, Ms Mwanaisha Komba, for the prosecution, mentioned the new accused as Maulid Seif (30), alias Black, alias Mau, alias Nkurunziza, a trader from Mbagala Magengeni, on the outskirts of the city.

Following the new development, the prosecution presented a new charge sheet in court which accommodates the new accused person in the trial.

After reading over the charge before Senior Resident Magistrate Nyigulile Mwaseba, the accused denied the charge. Seif also claimed to have been mistreated by the police while being locked up at Oysterbay Police Station.

"I have been seriously tortured by the police to force me to admit something which I do not know about," he told the magistrate. According to him, since he was locked up at the police station for some days he was being mishandled, including being seriously beaten up.

He requested the court to assist him so that he could be sent to hospital for treatment. The magistrate directed present Prison officials to help him.

Other accused persons are branch manager Alune Gidion Kasililika; Neema Bandali Batchu, also an employee of the bank; Kakamia Sekwao Julius; Iddy Nguvu Khamis; Sezary Oswald Masawe; Boniface Ndalo Muumba and Ruth Amon Macha, all of whom are traders.

The rest are Hamis Shabani, alias Caros, a businessman; Manasi Genyeka, alias Mjeshi (35), a driver and two police officers, Detective Staff Sergeant Idd and Corporal Bundala, who reside at Oysterbay Police and Mbezi area, respectively.

Ms Komba informed the court that investigation into the matter had not been completed and requested the court to adjourn the case to another mention date.

The magistrate granted the request and adjourned it to August 5. Before adjournment, advocate Mpale Mpoki, for some of the accused, complained about delays in completion of the investigations.

He pointed out that statements of the victims had already been reordered and the case was solely based on visual evidence. The advocate, therefore, questioned the rationale behind the delay in commencement of the case's hearing.

The state attorney, however, replied that the duty of conducting investigation was vested with the police and that was why some other accused were being joined.

It is alleged that all the accused persons, except the police officers, conspired to commit an offence at unknown time and place in the city of Dar es Salaam.

According to the prosecution, on April 15, this year, at Barclays Bank, Kinondoni Branch in Kinondoni District, the accused stole 390,220,000/-, 55,000 US dollars and euro 2150, property of the bank.

Before and during the stealing the accused persons allegedly threatened one Anifah Ahmed and Anna Tegete, who are employees of the bank, in order to obtain and retain the said money.