28. The Court finds that the Application does not contain any disparaging or
insulting language and therefore, meets the admissibility requirement of
Rule 50(2)(c) of the Rules.
29. The Application is not based exclusively on news disseminated through
mass media as it is founded on court documents from the municipal courts
of the Respondent State in fulfilment of Rule 50(2)(d) of the Rules.
30. The Court notes that, in accordance with Article 56(5) of the Charter, Rule
50(2)(e) of the Rules and as it has established in its case law that “the local
remedies that must be exhausted by the Applicants are ordinary judicial
remedies”,4 unless they are manifestly unavailable, ineffective and
insufficient or the proceedings are unduly prolonged.5
31. In the instant case, the Court notes that, the Applicant was convicted of
murder by the High Court and sentenced to death on 27 March 2001. He
appealed against this decision to the Court of Appeal, the highest judicial
organ in the Respondent State, which upheld the decision of the High Court
by its judgment of 28 June 2003. The Court, therefore, holds that the
Applicant exhausted the available local remedies.
32. With regard to the condition of filing an Application within a reasonable time
after exhaustion of local remedies, the Court notes that Article 56(6) of the
Charter does not specify any time frame within which a case must be filed
before this Court. Rule 50(2)(f) of the Rules, which in substance restates
Article 56(6) of the Charter, only requires an application to be filed within “a
reasonable time from the date local remedies were exhausted or from the
date set by the Court as being the commencement of the time limit within
which it shall be seised with the matter.”
4
Mohamed Abubakari v. Tanzania (merits) (3 June 2016) 1 AfCLR 599, § 64. See also Alex Thomas
v. Tanzania (merits) (20 November 2015) 1 AfCLR 465, § 64; and Wilfred Onyango Nganyi and 9 Others
v. Tanzania (merits) (18 March 2016) 1 AfCLR 507, § 95.
5 Lohé Issa Konaté v. Burkina Faso (merits) (5 December 2014) 1 AfCLR 314, § 77. See also Peter
Joseph Chacha v. Tanzania (admissibility) (28 March 2014) 1 AfCLR 398, § 40.
8