By Kusekwa Kusekwa
The High Court in Manyara Region has sentenced one Paskal Petro Saqware to death by hanging for the killing of a nursery school pupil, whose name has been withheld for ethical reasons, in Babati District, last year.
Judge Frank Mrindoko ordered Saqware to hang until he dies after convicting him of murder of the young girl, contrary to sections 196 and 197 of the Penal Code, Chapter 16 of the revised edition of the laws.
Babati Man Sentenced to Death for Pupil’s Murder
“I find Paskal Petro Saqware guilty and convict him of murder contrary to sections 196 and 197 of the Penal Code [Cap. 16 R.E. 2022]. Accordingly, the accused, Paskal Petro Saqware, is hereby sentenced to suffer death by hanging. It is so ordered,” the Judge declared in a judgment delivered recently.
Judge Mrindoko agreed with the prosecution, saying it had sufficiently proved that the accused person murdered the pupil with malice aforethought through the testimony of 14 witnesses and some documentary evidence.
“The fact that the pupil was slaughtered, blood found on the grass and flowering plant in the gully and the pupil’s head separated from the body, constitute ample evidence of malice aforethought in the nature of intention to cause death under section 200 (a) of the Penal Code,” he said.
According to the judge, it was clear from the evidence tendered in court that on February 20, 2024, the accused person, holding a machete, walked from Gichameda village towards Magugu settlement, picked up the pupil and left with her towards a gully in a sugarcane plantation.
Later that day, he noted, the pupil’s body and head were found in the gully, and on February 21, 2024, the villagers saw the accused person hiding in the sugar plantation near the place where the deceased’s body was found and arrested him.
“I am satisfied that these facts constitute grave incriminating circumstances pointing to the accused’s role in killing the pupil. It is clear to me that these facts sufficiently establish that the accused person killed the deceased,” the judge said.
