Idd Abdalah @ Adam versus The Republic; Criminal Appeal No 202 of 2014: Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Mwanza (Unreported).
- Evidence
- Cautioned statement – the accused disowned a cautioned statement – trial within trial not conducted – effect.
- Cautioned statement – should be read over to the accused person.
- Criminal Procedure
- Retrial – when it can be ordered?
Held:-
(i) When an accused person disowns a cautioned statement, the trial court is duty bound to resolve the question of its admissibility by making an enquiry or rather conducting a trial within trial.
(ii) A cautioned statement should be read over to the accused after it is tendered as evidence to afford him chance to – know its contents otherwise it may vitiate the proceedings.
(iii) In general a retrial will be ordered only when the original trial was illegal or defective. It will not be ordered where the conviction is set aside because of insufficiency of evidence or for purpose of enabling the prosecution to fill up the gaps in its evidence at the first trial. Even where a conviction is vitiated by a mistake of the trial court for which prosecution is not to be blamed, it does not necessarily follow that a retrial shall be ordered, each case must depend on its own facts and circumstances and an order of retrial should only be made where the interests of justice require. (cited Fatehali Manji v. R (1966) E. A. 341).