perusal of the Court records reveals that indeed the first Application, No.
017/2017 Abdallah Sospeter Mabomba and Others v. United Republic of
Tanzania from Uyuyi Central Prison, where the Applicant is incarcerated,
was registered at the Court on 13 June 2017. Therefore, a period of two (2)
months and eighteen (18) days elapsed between the time the Applicant filed
his application before this Court and when the first Application was filed from
Uyui Central Prison.
70. In this regard, the Court has previously considered as relevant factors, the
fact that an applicant is incarcerated,27 their indigence,28 lack of free
assistance of a lawyer,29 and the recent establishment of the Court,30 are
all
circumstances
that
justify
some
flexibility
in
assessing
the
reasonableness of the timeline for seizure of the Court.
71. The Court observes that the Applicant is in a comparable situation, because
he is incarcerated; restricted in movement and with limited access to
information; he was not accorded free legal representation at the domestic
level; and he claims not to have been aware of the existence of this Court
and only got to know about it after the first case by another Applicant from
the same prison was filed before this Court on 13 June 2017.
72. In a comparable case, where the Applicant claimed not to know about the
Courts existence before the first Application from his prison was filed and
he took seven (7) years, seven (7) months and ten (10) days to seize the
Court after exhaustion of local remedies, this Court held that this argument
of the lack of knowledge of the Courts existence, is insufficient to persuade
it that the Applicant diligently pursued his case and that he was not in a
position to know about the Court prior to the filing of the first case from that
27
Beneficiaries of late Norbert Zongo and Others v. Burkina Faso (merits) (28 March 2014) 1 AfCLR
219, § 92; Kijiji Isiaga v. United Republic of Tanzania (merits) (21 March 2018) 2 AfCLR 218, § 56; Alex
Thomas v. Tanzania (merits), § 73.
28 Nguza Viking and Johnson Nguza v. United Republic of Tanzania (merits) (23 March 2018) 2 AfCLR
287, § 61.
29 Mohamed Abubakari v Tanzania (merits) (2016) 1 AfCLR 599, § 92.
30 Beneficiaries of late Norbert Zongo and Others v. Burkina Faso (preliminary objections), § 122; Rajabu
Yusuph v. United Republic of Tanzania, ACtHPR, Application No. 036/2017, Ruling of 24 March 2021
(jurisdiction and admissibility), § 69.
20