BAK
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- Feb 11, 2007
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Utatu wewe una mawazo kama mimi, huyu wanaweza kabisa 'kumbalali' huko huko UK kabla hata hajakanyaga Bongo. Na hapo ndipo itakuwa mwisho wa kesi ya rada.
Huyu jamaa wakimleta Bongo si watam-Balali haraka haraka?
Thisday walijua kabla?
Major breakthrough in radar investigation
-British detectives set to help get things moving on local front
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
A MAJOR breakthrough has been made in the 28 million pound sterling (approx. 58bn/-) military radar scandal investigation, with Britains Serious Fraud Office (SFO) expected to deliver a sensitive package to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Dar es Salaam within a few days.
Sources close to the ongoing probe have told THISDAY that the SFO assistance will practically enable PCCB to wrap up its case ready for prosecution.
The Bureau is now awaiting a sensitive package from the SFO in the UK that will certainly ensure an airtight case is sent to the courts for prosecution, a well-placed source said, adding:
The package is expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam from Britain within the next few days.
The PCCB is understood to have all along been working closely with the SFO, which has been slowly and painstakingly conducting its own investigation into the 2002 radar transaction scandal.
In 2006, SFO detectives came over to Dar es Salaam to interview the lead suspect in the investigation, transaction middleman Shailesh Pragji Vithlani, before he skipped the country and an international warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued.
Officials familiar with the radar investigation told THISDAY recently that the PCCB has been struggling to build an airtight case against some prominent suspects.
In February this year, the Government anti-corruption watchdog said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Eliezer Feleshi, had opted to withhold his mandatory consent for the prosecution of the suspects pending further investigations.
DPP Feleshi is understood to have returned the radar case file to the PCCB to gather more evidence sufficient for a successful prosecution.
Since then, the PCCB has not sought fresh consent from the DPP to take the long-running case to court.
But our well-placed sources now say the arrival of the sensitive package from the UK should pave the way for things to really get moving vis-a-vis the radar case.
Vithlani is among at least four prominent Tanzanian personalities that have so far been named by the SFO as key targets in the radar deal investigation.
Others being probed by the British sleuths include former attorney general Andrew Chenge, ex-Bank of Tanzania governor Dr Idris Rashidi, and prominent local businessman Tanil Somaiya.
According to the SFO, both Vithlani and Somaiya were directly linked with the locally-registered Merlin International Limited company and the offshore Envers Trading Corporation company, which received illegal payments from the UK-based radar-selling firm BAE Systems to facilitate the transaction.
It is believed that BAE paid a whopping $12m in illegal kickbacks used to bribe top Government officials in the third phase Government of ex-president Benjamin Mkapa, to approve the dubious deal.
Austria announced recently that it expects to bring its own corruption charges in connection with BAE arms sales; the first such prosecution in five years of various BAE bribery investigations around the world.
The Austrian prosecutors decision follows the emergence of new documents that outline in considerable detail the channelling of secret BAE cash to Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, an Austrian aristocrat said to have been working undercover for the arms firm.
In one memo, Mensdorff claims Austria was persuaded to buy BAE Eurofighters in 2002 for 1.7 billion euros (1.5 billion pounds sterling), thanks to aggressive incentive payments to key decision-makers.
ThisDay
.Where is Vithlani? Still in UK or already in Tanzania? Sirikali iko kimyaaaaa haitaki kutufahamisha nini kinaendelea kuhusu fisadi huyu.
Wadau, this is for your information. Ripoti juu ya sakata la rada inayoonyesha jinsi Rashid na Chenge walivyohusika. Jamani, hivi ni kipi kinaendelea mbona iko wazi kabisa kuwa hawa jamaa wana kesi ya kujibu? Au ndo kama alivyosema IGP Mwema kuwa mafisadi ni vigumu kuwakamata vinginevyo nchi italipuka
...Au ndo kama alivyosema IGP Mwema kuwa mafisadi ni vigumu kuwakamata vinginevyo nchi italipuka
unakumbuka ile hadithi ya sungura aliyekimbizwa na mbwa? kila mbwa alivyokaribia kumkamata sungura, yeye alimrushia mfupa. kwa kifupi hao watu hawakula peke yao.
wote ni mafisadi, ndo maana wanalindanaInashangaza kwa ushahidi wote huu serikali nasubiri nini kuwafungulia mashtaka akina chenge na rashid