(MISA/IFEX) – Police in Tanzania’s Kigoma Region arrested three Muslim activists and confiscated at least seventy-seven tape cassettes containing speeches against government leaders and other religions. The incident took place on 25 May 2000, according to a “Guardian” newspaper report. The Kigoma regional police commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ASP) Placid Chaka, told the newspaper […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Police in Tanzania’s Kigoma Region arrested three Muslim activists and confiscated at least seventy-seven tape cassettes containing speeches against government leaders and other religions. The incident took place on 25 May 2000, according to a “Guardian” newspaper report.
The Kigoma regional police commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ASP) Placid Chaka, told the newspaper that police arrested the activists at a Shia Mosque, in the Mwandiga area. He said the three – Sheikh Athumani Mussa, Odo Mrisho and Ramadhani Rashid – had been playing the cassettes after prayers.
The confiscated cassettes apparently exhorted voters not to elect Christian candidates in the coming general multi-party elections in October and advised voters to remove the existing government from power in the next elections.
All three suspects appeared before the Kigoma regional court on seditions charges. They were also charged with behaving in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace. Police are reportedly still searching for more cassettes, especially in the Kalinzi, Kidawe and Simbu areas.
