TZW
They were of the view that such person, who is currently being detained at Bukoba Central Prison for about eight years now, awaiting his deportation to South Africa, as ordered by Home Affairs Minister, could be a terrorist, thus pausing serious threat to national security, laws and order and public health.
The justices expressed such concerns when hearing an application by Mr Pennessis before the court, accusing the United Republic of Tanzania of violating his rights of movement, by continuing to hold him in prison on claims that he is a non-citizen, while it is not true.
According to submissions presented before the Court by a team of Tanzania trial attorneys and evidence produced during trial by local courts, the applicant has been using names of Robert John Pennessis, Robert John Maitland and Robert John Robinstein in his United Kingdom and South African passports Trial attorneys, Sara Mwipopo, Nkosari Sarakikya, Hashim Ngole and Richard Kilanga maintained before Justices Sylvain Ore, Ben Kioko, Gerald Niyungeko, El Hadji Guisse, Rafaa Ben Achour, Angelo Matusse, Marie-Therese Mukamulisa, Tujilane Chizumila and Chefika Bensaula that Pennessis had dual citizenship.
During the session, however, the justices pointed out that upon noticing the applicant’s conduct, the Tanzanian authorities should have taken up the matter seriously, including invoking the provisions under the Vienna Convections to report the matter to embassies of the two nations for any assistance. A Senior Official with the Immigration Department, Mr Gerhard Mardai, who prosecuted the applicant’s case of unlawful present in Tanzania before the national courts, thereafter took over the floor in a witness box before the African Court to respond to the justices’ concerns.
He explained that the matter was not taken as serious by that time and such conduct was not investigated because during the applicant’s trial, he did not dispute using such names. Had there been any dispute, he argued, in-depth investigations would have been carried out to unveil what was behind. As regards to reporting such conduct to embassies of countries that issued the passports to Pennessis, Mr Mardai told the court that he was not aware of such requirement under the Vienna Convention and that as per Tanzanian laws, they do not report foreigners to their respective embassies once arrested.
“Every now and then we arrest foreigners from different nations for violating immigration laws. Once we arrest them, we either charge them in court or deport them to the country where they originate. We do not report them to their respective country embassies because they are so many,” he testified. In the session, lawyers representing the government also called two more witnesses, apart from Mr Mardai, to prove before the court that Mr Pennessis was not a Tanzanian, but rather a South African with duo nationality, including that of United Kingdom.
The applicant’s counsel, Mr Peres Parpai, had earlier on produced one witness, Georgia Pennessis, who claims to be the mother of the applicant, saying Robert John Pennessis is a Tanzanian, born in 1968 in Muleba District, Kagera Region and that he has been in the country for almost six generations. However, one of the state witnesses, Ms Rabua Abdul, who is Assistant Registration Officer with Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA), told the court that the birth certificate produced by the applicant was forged as was not among documents originated from her office.
She explained that in 2016, she received a letter attached with the birth certificate for confirmation of its authenticity. However, the witness went on, upon verification it was proved that such document had not originated from RITA records as it bore entry number which has never been reached yet even today. Another witness, Mr Clement Mubanga, also a senior officer with the Immigration Department, told the court that for one to have a birth certificate, was not a comprehensive and only proof that he was a citizen of that nation where he was born.
He also testified that the birth certificate details, among others, particulars of that person born on a certain date and the place where such birth was. After the session, the justices adjourned the matter for deliberation to another date to be announced later. Robert Pennessis, who claims to be a Tanzanian, was convicted by local courts of illegal stay in the country and sentenced to either pay 80,000/- fine or go to jail for two years in default of paying the fine in 2010. His appeals before the High Court and Court of Appeal on the matter were dismissed.
On Monday, the United Republic of Tanzania asked the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) to dismiss with costs the application by Pennessis, who is currently in Bukoba Central Prison awaiting his deportation to South Africa.
In his application, Pennessis has moved the African Court to declare him a Tanzanian and that the United Republic of Tanzania, as respondent in the matter, violated his rights of freedom of movement as guaranteed under the African Charter and, thus he should be released forthwith from prison.