The High Court of Tanzania has overturned the decision of the Advocate Ethics Committee which banned Former TLS President Fatma Karume from practicing on Mainland Tanzania, and ordered that the decision based be referred to the Ethics committee.
This now gives the opportunity to defend herself after she was on September 24 permanently removed her from the roll of advocates.
On September 20, 2020, the Advocates Ethics Committee suspended lawyer Fatma Karume from practising in Mainland over the remarks she made in her submission in a case challenging the appointment of Prof Adelardus Kilangi as Attorney General (AG) of Tanzania.
The committee then, claimed to have found Ms Karume guilty of gross misconduct and ordered that her name be struck from the list of lawyers in Tanganyika.
Fatma Karume was the lawyer in a case filed by Mr Ado Shaibu, then ACT-Wazalendo’s ideology, publicity and public communications secretary and the respondent was the late President John Magufuli.
A local court in Tanzania on Tuesday set free a prominent human rights lawyer and another person charged with “economic crimes,” including money laundering and organized crimes.
Tito Magoti, a 27-year-old lawyer and outspoken government critic, and Theodory Giyan, an IT specialist at a private firm, were arrested on Dec. 20, 2019.
Both were charged with “leading organized crime, possession of a computer program designed for the purpose of committing an offence and money laundering,” and had since been detained without trial.
The duo paid a fine of 17.3 million Tanzanian shillings (approximately $7,500) as part of a plea bargain deal after they pleaded guilty to one count of leading organized crime with intent to earn illegal income.
Human rights defenders have criticized the verdict, saying the accused were “forced to buy their freedom.”
“After more than 1 year of detention without trial, Tito Magoti and Theo have been forced to buy their freedom by pleading guilty and paying a fine,” Fatma Karume, a human rights lawyer, wrote on Twitter.
The Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international had repeatedly been urging the government of Tanzania to unconditionally release the duo, terming the charges against them “spurious.”
HABARI: Mahakama ya Hakimu Mkazi Kisutu, Dar es Salaam, limemwachia Afisa wa LHRC, Tito Magoti na Theodory Giyan, baada ya kukubali kukubali kulipa faini ya Sh.17 milioni. Tito na Giyan walikamatwa Desemba 2019 na kufunguliwa mashtaka matatu likiwemo la utakatishaji fedha. pic.twitter.com/rF7XrhqN47
Tito Magoti’s mother singing a hymn of praise on his release. The pain and suffering caused by egregious abuse of power is heartbreaking. https://t.co/TbSrG7gQnR
Tito Magoti was detained by order of Biswalo the DPP #Tanzania without trial for over 1 year. UNWGAD opined the detention ARBITRARY and asked for unconditional release. What does Biswalo do? He extracts a CONFESSION and ~$6000 from Tito for his freedom unaware that its TORTURE! https://t.co/GQ7qvuBAr2
#BreakingNews: Tito and Theodory freed after one year of detention
The two were arrested in Dec 2019 and charged with three economic crimes including money laundering. Their case was postponed 26 times before entering into the plea bargaining on 5th January 2021. pic.twitter.com/29IKuKeqFT
Tito Magoti and Theo abducted and then detained without trial by the Government of #Tanzania for more than a year were released today after a guilty plea and agreeing to pay a fine of ~$7000. https://t.co/TrIOtwAokm
Over a year since they were detained- Tanzanian human rights activist Tito Magoti & IT expert Theodory Giyan have finally been released.
Arrested December 2019 on charges of economic crimes (meaning no bail), the 2 reached a plea bargain and will pay TZS 17,000,000. pic.twitter.com/k2rAedJiy8
#Tanzania: Welcome news that lawyer #TitoMagoti & IT expert #TheoGiyan have been released from prison. More than a year in pre-trial detention & no evidence presented against them, we remain concerned with the use of non-bailable offenses to indefintley detain government critics. https://t.co/S60GuzmTx2
— ABA Justice Defenders Program (@JusticeDefend) January 5, 2021
We’re gravely concerned about attacks on lawyers and the independence of the legal profession in Tanzania, which takes the form of disbarments, arrest and detention, and legislative proposals.
Lawyer Fatma Karume
Fatma Karume was recently disbarred, following the Advocates’ Disciplinary Committee decision of 23 September 2020 for statements made in written submissions as well as comments she made on Twitter.
On 20 September 2019, Ms Karume had been suspended as a lawyer by the Tanzanian High Court, which referred the case of her alleged professional misconduct to the committee.
We’re concerned that the High Court suspended Ms Karume from legal practice, even though that court itself recognised that the matter had to be dealt with by a “proper and unfettered forum” and that she had a right to be heard.
Lawyers Jebra Kambole and Edson Kilatu
On 10 March 2020, Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court found nine opposition party leaders guilty of criminal offences, including unlawful assembly, rioting and sedition, and sentenced them to payment of a total of 350 million Tanzanian schillings or a five-month prison term.
“The Law Society is concerned that the High Court suspended Ms @fatma_karume from legal practice, even though that Court itself recognised that the matter had to be dealt with by a “proper and unfettered forum” and that she had a right to be heard” @TheLawSociety#ChangeTanzaniapic.twitter.com/2nAVrrkTI1
— #ChangeTanzania #ZanzibarLivesMatter (@ChangeTanzania) January 5, 2021
“In accordance with the case-law of international tribunals, such as the European Court of Human Rights, there is less room for restriction of a lawyer’s right to freedom of expression if it regards legal submissions.” @TheLawSociety#UhuruWaKujieleza#ChangeTanzaniapic.twitter.com/F055xd3Jqg
— #ChangeTanzania #ZanzibarLivesMatter (@ChangeTanzania) January 5, 2021
— #ChangeTanzania #ZanzibarLivesMatter (@ChangeTanzania) January 5, 2021
“The UN Working Group recalls that article 19 (2) of the Covenant provides that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, and that this right includes freedom to seek, receive and impart any information regardless of frontiers” @UN_HRC#FreeTitoMagoti#ChangeTanzaniapic.twitter.com/xBOPsZB3NE
Security agencies in Uganda have arrested a prominent human rights lawyer over alleged money laundering.
Nicholas Opiyo, known for representing LGBTQ+ people, was arrested in a restaurant in the capital, Kampala, on Tuesday by plainclothes security and financial intelligence officers.
Opiyo, executive director of rights organisation Chapter Four Uganda, was seized along with three other lawyers – Herbert Dakasi, Anthony Odur and Esomu Obure – and Hamid Tenywa, human rights officer of Bobi Wine’s opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP).
Ugandan police tweeted that Opiyo had been arrested on allegations of money laundering and “related malicious acts”.
“The investigations are progressing well and any new developments will be communicated in due course. He remains in our custody at the special investigations division,” the tweet said.
Opiyo’s arrest comes barely a week after he represented two NGOs – Uganda National NGO Forum and the Uganda Women’s Network – whose accounts were frozen by security forces over terrorism allegations.
[…]
Opiyo, 2015 recipient of the Alison Des Forges award for extraordinary activism, has worked tirelessly since 2005 to defend civil liberties in Uganda, often for free and on behalf of society’s most vulnerable and marginalised.
He has faced verbal attacks and even death threats for defending LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda.
Chairman @RepEliotEngel: I remain concerned about Uganda’s ability to hold free and fair elections next month. Since yesterday, the police have detained human rights lawyer @nickopiyo on politically motivated charges. He must be immediately released and reunited with his family.
Update on money laundering Investigation@FredEnanga1 "We would like to further inform the public that the Task Team actively investigating Lawyer Nicholas Opio and others for violating anti-Money laundering rules has deepened its investigations into the preliminary findings".
Deeply concerned about the arrest today of #Uganda's prominent human rights defender @nickopiyo, just weeks before the country's elections. He's being held incommunicado, with no access to his family, lawyers & colleagues. @hrw#UgandaDecides2021pic.twitter.com/m0JPkGM3Zt
#Ouganda : L’arrestation arbitraire par les forces de sécurité de l’#avocat défenseur des droits humains Nicholas #Opiyo est un signe inquiétant de mépris pour des droits fondamentaux. L’Ouganda devrait respecter l’état de droit et les normes de procédure régulière. pic.twitter.com/VKUgoaVeBO
Nous avons appris avec consternation l'arrestation de @nickopiyo , avocat en droits humains, activiste, président d'@actionaiduganda, directeur de @chapterfourug
Nous exprimons notre solidarité avec sa famille et tous les dirigeant∙e∙s de la société civile.#FreeNicholasOpiyo
On December 20, 2019, police lured Magoti to a meeting through phone text messages from Giyani, who had been previously arrested. The police then handcuffed and blindfolded Magoti, and then drove him away. He was held at several different police stations for five days before being charged with “economic crimes,” including money laundering and leading organized crime. The Legal and Human Rights Centre, where Magoti worked, said the police questioned Magoti about his online activism and his involvement with other rights activists and opposition members, and believe this was the reason he was arrested.
Magoti, a 27-year- old lawyer, and Giyani have since been held in Segerea Prison in Dar es Salaam pending trial. Under Tanzanian law, money laundering is non-bailable, meaning there is no possibility of release before they are tried. Their trial has been postponed 26 times, with the state yet to present any evidence against them. The prosecution says investigations have not been completed.
In August, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a decision that Magoti’s pre-trial detention was arbitrary and in violation of his rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Working Group called on the Tanzanian government to immediately release and compensate him.
Magoti is not the first critic of the government to face reprisals.
In September 2020, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) issued a decision in the case of detained Tanzanian human rights lawyer, Tito Magoti. The UNWGAD held that the fair trial violations in Mr. Magoti’s case were of such gravity to give his pre-trial detention an arbitrary character. The UNWGAD further held that Tanzania is in violation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UNWGAD decision calls for the immediate release of Mr. Magoti and that he should be compensated. The ABA Justice Defenders Program provided pro bono technical legal assistance to the Legal Human Rights Center (LHRC) to submit the petition on behalf of Magoti who at the time of his arrest, worked as a Program Officer for Mass Education at LHRC.
#TitoMagoti & colleague #TheoGiyani have been detained for 300+ days with no right to bail. #UNWGAD ruled that #Tanzania Criminal Procedure Act, Section 148(5) — which automatically denies bail to those accused of money-laundering — is a violation of #HumanRights law.
UN Working group has found that the DPP, Biswalo Mganga’s delay in bringing Tito Magoti’s case to trial is EXCESSIVE and contravenes #Tanzania’s international obligations. The judiciary in TZ think it’s fine. Can we really say it is independent? pic.twitter.com/gtI3GFiIky
@IntlCrimCourt the UN Working Group has asked #Tanzania to release Tito Magoti and INVESTIGATE his unlawful detention. They will do neither because it is a systemic, widespread and planned abuse of human rights against opponents. Ignoring TZ is breeding IMPUNITY pic.twitter.com/tCebIdYUsr
The UN Working Group has found that the police force is complicit in the abduction of Tito Magoti and Theo. This is a serious indictment on the unlawful manner in which the police conducts itself in #Tanzania. @IntlCrimCourt @BBCAfrica pic.twitter.com/OlPm3wBcJe
The ABA is deeply concerned with the decision of the Advocates Disciplinary Committee to permanently disbar Ms. Fatma Karume from practicing law in Tanzania and urges the Committee to immediately reconsider its decision.
The American Bar Association (ABA) is deeply concerned with the decision of the Advocates Disciplinary Committee in Tanzania, delivered on September 23, 2020, to permanently disbar Ms. Fatma Karume from practicing law in Tanzania. The decision follows Ms. Karume’s suspension by the High Court in September 2019, based on allegations of unprofessionalism and misconduct arising from language she used in a constitutional case challenging President Magufuli’s appointment of Professor Adelardus Kilangi as the Attorney General of Tanzania. Reviewing the decision of the Advocates Disciplinary Committee, the ABA considers Ms. Karume’s disbarment to be a disproportionate penalty under international law norms. Only in the most serious of cases of misconduct must a lawyer be disbarred.
The United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers 1 are clear that lawyers must be able to perform their duties without intimidation or harassment and should not suffer retaliation for action taken in accordance with their professional duties (Art. 16). The U.N Basic Principles (Art. 23) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 19), which Tanzania ratified in 1976, 2 further affirm that lawyers, like other citizens, have the right to freedom of expression. The U.N Basic Principles specifically note that lawyers have “the right to take part in public discussion of matters concerning the law, the administration of justice and the promotion and protection of human rights” (Art. 23).
Last month, Tundu Lissu was campaigning for the presidency of Tanzania.
Today, he is back in a simple ground floor flat in the small Belgian town where he recovered from multiple gunshot wounds the last time he was forced to flee his homeland.
It is dangerous to be the opposition flag-bearer in Tanzania, where President John Magufuli was returned to office on October 28 with an improbable 84 percent of the vote.
But 52-year-old Lissu, a veteran of the East African state’s brutal politics, knew the risks — and bears the physical and mental scars to prove it.
In September 2017 gunmen opened fire on him outside his home in a protected government compound, after apparently tailing the then opposition MP from parliament.
Lissu was left with 16 bullet wounds but survived and was flown out, first to Nairobi and then on to Belgium, where his life was saved with several rounds of surgery.
He returned to Tanzania in July after being chosen to lead the opposition challenge to Magufuli’s re-election.
The campaign went well despite the oppressive government tactics, he said, but the president’s crushing victory came as no surprise.
Lissu, who met AFP at his apartment in exile in the nondescript town of Tienen in the Flemish Brabant, had been warned the election would be rigged.
Before the vote, he said, a person who identified himself as senior military official contacted him.
“This army general told me: ‘Magufuli is going to get 12 million votes, you will get three million. This is what they have decided’,” Lissu said.
“And you know what? That’s exactly what Magufuli got — 12.5 something million. I didn’t get three million. I got 1.9,” he said.
– Rigged ballot –
The US State Department has expressed concern over reports of “significant and widespread voting irregularities, internet interruption, arrests and violence by security forces.”
The UK Foreign Office also complained of allegations of “pre-filled ballot boxes and party agents being denied entry to polling stations.”
What happened next was also not unexpected, but was nonetheless terrifying, especially for the survivor of a previous assassination bid.
“Immediately after the election was called, or what passes for an election, the security detail that was given to me during the campaign was removed,” he said.
“And the very next day, I started receiving death threats,” said Lissu, who still walks with a limp.
The caller did not identify himself by name, but it seemed clear that he represented the security or intelligence services.
Hope For Humanity Africa and the Pan African Lawyers Union have sued the governments of South Sudan and Kenya over the abduction and possible subsequent murder of human rights lawyer Dong Samuel and activist Aggrey Idri.
The case is before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in Tanzania.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, South Sudanese lawyer, Wani Santino Jada said the complainants want explanations on circumstances that led to the disappearance and killing of both men.
Last month, Wani said, South Sudan and Kenya received official invitations from the EACJ, in which Attorney Generals of both nations were summoned to appear before the Tanzania-based court.
He added that Juba confirmed receipt of the invitation on July 18, while Nairobi confirmed receipt of the same letter on July 22.
Wan said several lawyers in the region are demanding that Juba and Nairobi be held liable for the killing of both men.
He revealed that the court had given the Attorney-Generals of the two countries 45 days to appear before the tribunal in Tanzania.
Wani stressed that the deportation of Dong and Idri from Kenya was a blatant violation of East African laws because there were no bilateral agreements between Juba and Nairobi to deport the two activists.
In May, a report submitted to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), by a panel of experts tasked to probe the conflict situation in South Sudan, revealed that both Dong and Idri were kidnapped by the Internal Security Bureau of South Sudan in Nairobi.
It said the two men were then deported to Juba and executed three days later.
Dong, a renowned South Sudanese human rights lawyer and activist, and Aggrey Idri Ezbon, a member of the opposition SPLM-IO, disappeared from the Kenyan capital on 23 and 24 January 2017.
Questions lingered yesterday after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Biswalo Mganga disclosed that his office was holding an Arusha-based lawyer whose whereabouts had triggered a social media storm last week.
"I have heard the DPP saying that he is detained for various offenses, but I have not been able to see him. I am a house wife with four children. Please grant me the right to see my husband." Advocate Maneno Mbunda's wife, Mwanaisha Omari pic.twitter.com/P4JK9BmmKW
— WateteziTv_International (@WateteziTv_Int) May 5, 2019
Advocate Maneno Pius Mbunda's young sister, Upendo Mbunda, crying for the authorities' help in finding her missing brother pic.twitter.com/ZrBltQNsBw
— WateteziTv_International (@WateteziTv_Int) May 4, 2019
Thank you for your support on this. Bring back advocate Maneno Mbunda https://t.co/iEKZBJWo8e
— Tanganyika Law Society (@TanganyikaLaw) May 4, 2019
THRDC National Coordinator, Mr Onesmo Olengurumwa has issued a statement on the disappearance of Advocate Maneno Pius Mbunda, on behalf of the Coalition, available at https://t.co/FfUdT3rJzkpic.twitter.com/ZwssgNtBlX
— WateteziTv_International (@WateteziTv_Int) May 3, 2019
Mkurugenzi wa Mashtaka (DPP), Biswalo Mganga amesema Wakili Maneno Mbunda aliyeripotiwa kutoweka Arusha anashikiliwa kwa mahojiano kwa uhujumu uchumi pamoja na watuhumiwa wengine tisa. Washtakiwa hao wanatuhumiwa kutamka bei ya chini ya meno ya tembo na … pic.twitter.com/31qBcZa02S
Mkurugenzi wa Mashtaka nchini DPP, Biswalo Mganga amesema wakili Maneno Mbunda anayedaiwa kutoweka Aprili 28 huko jijini Arusha, anashikiliwa na Jeshi la Polisi kwa mahojiano. (Mwananchi) 1/2. #KwanzaHabaripic.twitter.com/lCqWrG3day
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 