THE REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA ARRESTED AND IMPRISONSED INNOCENT BRITISH INVESTOR STEWART MIDDLETON USING FORGED DOCUMENTS MANIPULATED BY BENJAMIN MENGI AND FACILITATED BY THE MOSHI POLICE AND JUDICIARY.
Tanzania, a country committed to good governance and an 'investor friendly' environment, savagely abused British Investor Stewart Middleton a bona fide investor in the country.
Stewart Middleton, a bona fide investor in the agricultural sector in Tanzania purchased an assignment to the lease of Silverdale & Mbono Farms, in the Hai district of the Kilimanjaro region in May 2004 from Benjamin and Millie Mengi. Benjamin Mengi is brother to Media Tycoon Reginald Mengi who owns IPP Media in Tanzania.
In April 2005, Mengi began negotiating with another British investor Konrad Legg; to sell the lease to him for a second time and he demanded that Middleton hand the farms back to him based on the fact that Mengi, despite having signed a full receipt, had not been paid in full. It had taken Mengi one year to make this allegation. Legg began negotiation with Kenyan firm Tropical Farm Management, to manage the coffee on Silverdale Farm.
When Middleton refused to hand back the lease, Mengi, using the police and the judiciary and the Kyeri, Shari and Uswa/Mamb Co-operative societies, began a campaign of violence racist abuse and Zimbabwe style tactics to force the investor to leave Tanzania. The tactics were supported by the Moshi Police and the judiciary,
In March 2006, the High Court in Moshi dismissed Mengi's claims to have the investors evicted from the farms but left the investors to pay $6,000 in costs.
In November 2005, Mr. Middleton was arrested on the basis of charge sheets that were forged by the Moshi Police. The complainant was Benjamin Mengi. The charge sheets contained charges that do not exist under the Penal Code of Tanzania. In July 2006. Mr. Middleton was arrested again and imprisoned. This time on allegations of a civil nature carrying no power of arrest, that Mr. Middleton had breached a court order. The court order was forged and issued by Magistrate Temu from the Moshi Magistrates Court. The date on the order preceded the date for the hearing of the order. The first order was issued and not happy with that, Mengi applied for another order signed by another Magistrate. He then complained that Middleton had breached the order. Notwithstanding the order was forged and of a civil nature, it carried no power of arrest.
Despite representations to Vincent Lyimo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Middleton was placed before the court late in the afternoon refused bail and sent to Karanga Prison in Moshi for four days and incarcerated outside the High Court in Moshi in a cage on the day of his release. The file went missing for two days so the court could not address the incarceration. On the day of his release, the prosecution attorney stated, that Mr. Middleton's incarceration had been a travesty of justice. The High Court judge stated that the Magistrate had not been free from bias and that there was no evidence to suggest Mr. Middleton had breached a court order.
All charges were dropped y the Director of Public Prosecutions, but no apology has ever been given to Mr. Middleton by the Republic Tanzania who after four years continue to refuse to address the conduct of the courts and police to register Mr. Middleton's lease.
IPP Media newspapers reported the arrests accusing Mr. Middleton of offences of dishonesty making no investigations into the authenticity of the documents and giving no right to reply.
Category :
News & Politics
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