This archive report was first published on 12 September 2019.
On September 12, 2019, a Tanzanian court adjourned the case of prominent investigative journalist Erick Kabendera for the fourth time since his arrest on July 29, 2019. Kabendera, who has written for national and international publications, including Britain's Guardian and Times, was charged with leading organised crime, failing to pay taxes, and money laundering.
According to reports, Kabendera limped slowly into the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital, and told the court that he was experiencing severe pain in his leg and chest pains. A prison doctor had examined him the previous week, and he was due to have another medical examination on Friday, he informed the court.
His lawyers requested the court to allow him to go to a government hospital for treatment. Magistrate Augustine Rwizile adjourned the case until September 18, 2019, and said that he would rule next week on the hospital request after receiving an update on Kabendera's medical condition from the prison doctor.
Rights groups have accused the Tanzanian government of politically motivated charges against Kabendera, citing the country's deteriorating press freedom since the election of President John Magufuli in 2015. The government has rejected these allegations.
Most of Tanzania's prisons are overcrowded, resulting in poor conditions for inmates, rights groups say. Kabendera is being held at the Segerea prison, a maximum security facility on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.
