Mrisho Mussa Basuka versus The Republic; Criminal Appeal No371 of 2014: Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Dodoma (Unreported).
- Evidence
- Identification – Apart from factors favouring accurate identification, credibility of the witnesses must be considered.
- Identification – description of the accused should be given before witness sees the accused.
- Exhibit – Exhibit seized in the absence of accused – whether sufficient to link him.
Held:-
(i) In matters of identification, it is not enough merely to look at factors favouring accurate identification. Equally important is the credibility of witnesses. The conditions for identification might appear ideal but there is no guarantee against untruthful evidence.
(ii) One of the rules developed by the court to guard against mistaken identify especially where the suspect is seen by the witnesses for the first time is that, such witness(es) ought to give detailed description of the suspect(s) to the person to whom they first report about the theft (robbery) before they have a chance of seeing the accused after he is arrested.
(ii) Where an exhibit is seized in the absence of an accused person and neither shown nor asked for it, it is not sufficient evidence to link it to an accused person.