Dar Es Salaam - On Monday the treason trial resumed in Zanzibar and on his response to the defense submitted by the accused, 18 members of the Civic United Front (CUF), the Principal State Attorney, Salum Tawfig says accused have something to answer.
Most of the defendants were arrested in late 1997. On their defense submission, councilors, Mr. Ussi Khamis and Hamid Bezeleni, asks for dismissal of the case on the grounds that Zanzibar could not be prone to a coup because it was not a sovereign state.
Mr. Hamid had asks: "According to the Union Constitution (Mainland and Isles) there is no state called Zanzibar. Since Zanzibar is not a sovereign state, how one commit treason? Mr. Hamid himself a former Zanzibar attorney General and High Court Judge, had says: "Tanzania is one state and is a sovereign united republic. Therefore there is no state of Zanzibar."
According to the law, a person committed treason to a sovereign state to which he owned allegiance and since Zanzibar was not sovereign state, it was impossible to commit treason, he said.
"The Union Constitution expressly stipulates that the territory of the united republic consists of the whole area of Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. Now how does Zanzibar become a sovereign state" he queries, adding "It is treasonable itself to talk Zanzibar as a sovereign state."
However on his objection to the defense, Tawfiq maintains that the case can be tried. He says the 1964 Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar did not dissolve the People's Republic of Zanzibar, because its existence, powers, and authority are recognized by the present Union Constitution.
He quotes from other doctrines saying, sovereignty meant supreme authority which has international claim, but not legal over other states, but rather legal authority which is not in law dependent on any other earthly authority. He says each of the Union and Zanzibar governments has sovereign organs, governments, legislatures and judiciaries and that the union government has no mandate on Zanzibar matters other than those stipulated as a Union matters.
Tawfiq says the same applicable to the Union Parliament and Zanzibar House of Representatives as well as to the judiciary in Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland.
On legislatures he says neither of the two is subordinate to the other nor does one drive its authority from the other. He dismisses the notion that sovereignty was indivisible, saying it was not tenable in the present day. He uses references from other federal countries like Sweden, Germany, India and USA he says sovereignty in these countries was divided between federal governments and states or provinces.
The fates on the case on whether accused have the charge to answer will be known on April third this year. The accused continues to stay on remand. The case is under Zanzibar Deputy Chief Justice Garba Tumaka a Nigerian who on Monday adjourned the treason trial to make his decision on April.
Some activists including Members of the Parliament from Tanzania Mainland had said the trial treason was a political issue, pressuring the government of Zanzibar to suspend it. To them, Dr. Amour was clearing his way to the state house, the move which, however, have been failed after the Central Committee of CCM having rejected proposal by Dr. Amour to amend the constitution of Zanzibar. If amended, Dr. Amour would have given a go ahead for presidency contest in October this year.
Already families of the 18 CUF activists facing treason charges in Isles had made an emotional appear to Zanzibar President Dr. Salmin Amour for the immediate release of their detained relatives.
They joined hands with the 45 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the ruling CCM party in petitioning the Zanzibar President to drop the treason charges against members of CUF, the powerful opposition party in the Isles. The families, mostly wives of the accused persons, made the appeal shortly after attending a session for the hearing of the trial for the very first time at the Zanzibar-based Vuga High Court.
"We appeal to the Zanzibar revolutionary Government for release of our loved ones," said Mrs. Fatuma Haji, wife of Juma Duni Haji one of the CUF members involving in the case.
Other relatives of the accused persons begged for freedom for the loved ones, saying they would rot in jail because of delay in the hearing of the trial.
Earlier at the Vuga High Court, an emotional atmosphere engulfed the courtroom when the 18 accused persons were escorted into the building amid tight security only to find their loved ones waiting to offer them comfort and moral support, albeit at a short distance away.
The CCM MPs had signed a petition asking Dr. Salmin Amour to drop the case on the ground that is political, among other reasons.
The accused persons were alleged to have committed the offense of attempting to overthrow the Zanzibar government in 1995 and 1997.
![[Documents menu]](../bin/bk.gif)