Patrick Abel versus The Republic; Criminal Appeal No 55 of 2014: Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Mwanza (Unreported).
- Evidence
- Witnesses – credibility of witnesses – whether amendment of charge and introduction of new facts has a bearing or credibility of the complainant.
- Appeal
- Appeals – under what circumstances the court of Appeal may interfere with concurrent findings of facts by lower courts?
Held:-
(i) The prosecution can amend charges but in certain situations some amendments should raise eyebrows that should keep trial courts on the edge, because some amendments have a bearing on the credibility of the complainant.
(ii) Where there are concurrent findings of facts by the lower courts, an appellate court, in a second appeal, should not disturb them unless it is clearly shown that there has been a misapprehension of the evidence, a miscarriage of justice or violation of some principle of law, or there are glaring errors on the face of the record, or misdirection’s or non-directions on the evidence, or a mis-apprehension of the substance, nature and quality of the evidence, resulting in unfair conviction.