Dar es Salaam. Government prosecutors said Thursday that they no longer have interest in pursuing the “false information” charges they had earlier levelled against veteran Tanzanian politician Wilbrod Slaa, ending his 48-day detention at the Keko Prison in the city he was serving after he was denied bail.
Slaa, who once served as the Tanzanian ambassador to Sweden, was arrested on January 10, 2025, and charged with publishing “false information” via the social media platform X. His arrest followed his remarks during an X Space organised by human rights activist Maria Sarungi-Tsehai.
During the conversation, Dr Slaa, who once served as the secretary-general of the opposition CHADEMA, claimed that he had been informed about President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s conversation with former CHADEMA national chairperson Freeman Mbowe to influence the election within Tanzania’s main opposition party.
Dr Slaa alleged that the Head of State was interfering in the internal party election to aid Mr Mbowe who was defending his position as party chairperson against Tundu Lissu, a firebrand opposition figure. In the highly competitive race, Mr Lissu defeated Mr Mbowe, ending the latter’s two-decade rule of CHADEMA.
Police said the information Slaa said he received from his informants was “false” and charged him with “publishing false information,” a crime in Tanzania according to the East African nation’s Cybercrimes Act of 2015.
Efforts by Dr Slaa and his attorneys to secure bail bore no fruit as government prosecutors claimed that the accused’s safety was in danger, necessitating the need for his detention.
Attempts to seek the High Court’s intervention in the bail issue also faced hurdles, as despite the court directing the Kisutu Magistrate Court to “expedite” Slaa’s bail process, as the lower court’s ability to do so was limited by actions of the Prison Service who failed to produce the accused to court whenever the case came for hearing, citing various reasons, including the absence of a motor vehicle with which to transport Slaa to court.
These factors led to a prolonged detention for the accused, who served 48 days in prison by the time the prosecutors decided to drop the charges against him, saying the government no longer had interest in pursuing the case.
Mwanaisha Mndeme, one of the lawyers who represented Dr Slaa in the case, welcomed the government’s decision to drop the charges, but said the decision was “too late, too little” as the charges were not supposed to be filed in the first place.
“The charges were baseless from the beginning,” Mndeme told The Chanzo in an interview. “That’s alone is absurd. Prosecutors added to that absurdity by denying our client bail, which he deserved according to the charges he faced.”
“Our client was treated unfairly, and no one should be subjected to the treatment he has been forced to go through,” Mndeme, an opposition ACT-Wazalendo member, added.
One Response
“prosecutors claimed that the accused’s safety was in danger, necessitating the need for his detention.” Then he could not be brought before court because of lack of vehicle! And so the Mzee spends 48 days in cell then the charges are dropped.
ARE THEY NOT ASHAMED?