Tanzania has appointed a panel to investigate reports that the majority of the money received by the public prosecutor for plea bargain deals is missing, with some purportedly banked outside the country.
“Most of the money is missing. If you ask questions, you will be told that they are in an account in China,” President Samia Suluhu warned at the launch of the commission set to investigate the matter.
Ms Samia’s predecessor, John Magufuli, modified the criminal laws in 2019 to include, among other things, a plea-bargaining mechanism in which jailed suspects and prisoners bought their freedom or received reduced terms.
According to the government’s audit office, the DPP’s office had collected at least $21 million by April 2021. Ms Samia, on the other hand, did not specify how much money was gone or who owned the alleged offshore account.
Millions of cash were extracted from businessmen guilty of significant economic crimes in plea-bargains under Magufuli’s regime.
According to the courts, investigative journalist Eric Kabendera, among others, spent more than $70,000 to be released in February 2020.
Mr Kabendera was detained on suspicion of money laundering, tax evasion, and directing an organised crime group. Human rights groups criticised his arrest, claiming that Magufuli was punishing critics and the media.
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