Article 7(2) of the Charter. The Respondent also adds that, if the Applicants are
complaining of the length of penalty for armed robbery, the Court does not have
the authority to examine the constitutionality of the length of a punishment
stipulated for a crime in its domestic legislation.
iii)
The Court's Assessment
98. The Court observes from the particulars of the case, that with regard to the
length of the imprisonment imposed on them, the Applicants simply assert that
their sentence to 30 years imprisonment violates the Constitution of the
Respondent and Article 7 (2) of the Charter. Article 7 (2) of the Charter provides
that:
"No one may be condemned for an act of omission, which did not constitute a
legally punishable offence at the time it was committed. No penalty may be
inflicted for an offence for which no provision was made at the time it was
committed. Punishment is personal and can be imposed only on the offender."
99.lt emerges from the file that the relevant question at stake is whether the penalty
to which the Applicants were sentenced on 19 December 2005 and upheld on
24 December 2009 was not provided for in the law.
100.
The records before this Court indicate that the armed robbery for which
the Applicants were convicted was committed on 5th of November 2002.
Following their extradition to the Respondent on 24 March 2003, the Applicants
were charged at the Resident Magistrate's Court of Dar es Salaam at Kisutu
for crimes of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit crimes contrary to
Sections 285 and 286 of the Penal Code as amended by Act No. 10 of 1989.
Both crimes were defined in the Penal Code and the amending Act. According
to Section 286 of this Penal Code a person convicted of armed robbery is liable
to a penalty of life imprisonment with or without corporeal punishment. Section
5 (b) of the Minimum Sentences Act of 1972 as amended by the 1994 Written
Laws Amendment, also prescribes that the minimum sentence for the said
offence is thirty (30) years. The two provisions read together show that the
applicable penalty for armed robbery is a minimum of thirty (30) years
imprisonment.
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