Sano Sadiki & Another vs Republic (Criminal Appeal No.623 of 2021) [2023] TZCA 17476 (9 August 2023)

Sano Sadiki and Tukure Ally were charged with illicit trafficking in narcotics, specifically heroin, under section 16 (1) (b) (i) of the Drug Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Drugs Act (DPITD Act). They were arrested while driving from Mozambique to Tanzania with forty packets of heroin in their possession. The appellants disputed the credibility of the prosecution witnesses and the admissibility of their extrajudicial statements, but the court dismissed these arguments. They also claimed that the trial judge failed to consider their defence evidence, but the court found that the trial judge had sufficiently dealt with their defence evidence.

The court identified an error in law in the sentencing of the appellants. The trial judge had sentenced them to 20 years imprisonment without considering the time they had already spent in remand custody. The court invoked its revisional powers under section 4 (2) of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act (AJA) and section 172(2) (c) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), reducing the sentence to thirteen years and three months, taking into account the time spent in remand.