Yusuph Manji now faces citizenship query
Business tycoon Yusuf Manji has filed an application asking the High Court to order immigration officers to set him free as new details emerged that he has already been question for allegedly illegally staying in Tanzania.
Mr Manji, who was until yesterday admitted under tight security at Aga Khan Hospital after he was released on bail in a drug use case, is also seeking an order that he be produced in court so that the case against him is dealt with according to the law.
Respondents in the application are the Commissioner General of Immigration Services, Dar es Salaam Regional Immigration Officer, Attorney General and the Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander.
The billionaire businessman presented himself to the police on February 8, a day after Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda named him as among people wanted for questioning over drug use and peddling.
He spent in custody for eight days before he was charged on February 16 charged with drug use and released on bail. Soon after his release he was re-arrested on the orders of the regional immigration officer and has since been in custody at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute and more recently Aga Khan Hospital.
But in the Habeas corpus application he filed through his lawyer, Mr Hudson Ndusyepo, Mr Manji is asking the court to order immigration officials and police to produce him in court for determination of the legality of his detention.
Mr Ndusyepo says in a sworn affidavit in support of the application by his client that he visited Mr Manji at Aga Khan Hospital on February 17 and established that immigration officers were waiting to take him to the regional immigration officer for questioning over allegations that he was not a citizen of the United Republic of Tanzania.
“I made a request that the applicant be released on bail so as to set him at liberty but the same was denied for no apparent reason,” he says.
According the Mr Ndusyepo, Mr Manji who is also chairman of Quality Group Limited and councillor for Mbagala Kuu in Dar es Salaam, was on February 20 taken to the regional immigration office and questioned in connection with alleged unlawful entry into Tanzania.
He recorded a statement with the immigration officials and was admitted to Aga Khan Hospital where remain in the custody of immigration officers and the police.
“That, as his defence counsel, I have been following up the applicant’s bail until 9th March, 2017, which is equal to 504 hours (over 20 days) from the date of his arrest but the immigration office under the instruction of the Regional Immigration Officer refused to consider the application for bail for reasons known to themselves,” says Mr Ndusyepo in the affidavit.
Yesterday, Dar es Salaam Regional Immigration Officer, John Msumule neither denied nor confirmed that they were holding the businessman, saying he was not ready comment on the matter.
In the application filed under a certificate of urgency, his lawyer argues that the decision to detain Mr Manji for a period in excess of that provided by the law and denying him bail was illegal and improper.
“…if the orders sought by the applicant are not granted immediately, the applicant stands to suffer serious loss of his liberty without a justifiable cause.”
Mr Ndusyepo argues that Mr Manji’s prolonged and illegal detention will cause his client severe psychological and bodily torture. Under section 390 (1) (a) and (b) of the Criminal Procedure Act, the High Court, whenever it thinks fit, direct that any person be brought up before the court to be dealt according to the law.