Prof Costa Mahalu

The prosecution has asked the court to find former Tanzanian ambassador to Prof Costa Mahalu and former counsellor to the embassy Grace Martine guilty of economic sabotage and causing the government a loss of euro 2,065,827.60.

It further requested the court to issue a deterrent punishment for the accused and order them to refund the money.

The prayer was made yesterday in final prosecution submissions by Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) prosecutor Benny Linkolin at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court before Principal Resident Magistrate Ilvin Mgeta.

"We ask the court to order the accused to refund the government a total of euro 2,065,827.60 which loss they caused," Linkolin said.

He claimed that the prosecution had managed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offences as charged, considering the evidence adduced by the first witness, who was then Chief Secretary in the Office of the President, Martin Lumbanga.

In his testimony Lumbanga claimed that Mahalu introduced the issue of tax evasion to him in the purchase of the building of the Embassy in Rome Italy, but he informed him that the issue of taxes was not the Tanzanian government's concern and so was instructed to present the argument to the Italian government.

He claimed that the accused never told him about entering into two contracts on the sale of the building.

"It indicates that the purchase of the building cost euro 1.032,913.80 and not euro 3,098,741.40 which was finally paid by the government," he said.

He said that the second prosecution witness, Marco Papi, who witnessed the purchase of the building claimed that the purchase price was euro 1,032,913.80, and that this evidence was colloborated by the fifth prosecution witness in the case.

Papi claimed that by Italian law it was illegal to buy a building using two contracts unless the buyer wanted to avoid paying tax.

Meanwhile, the prosecution has claimed that the accused brought to court former president Benjamin Mkapa to defend them in the case.

"Prof. Mahalu, in his testimony, never mentioned that President Mkapa was ever involved in the process of buying the building," adding that he was surprised to see Mkapa in court as a defence witness.

Mkapa said in his testimony that he was fully informed about the purchase of the building, but he did not know why the accused did not tell him about the double contracts.