BUSINESSMAN Yussuf Manji yesterday lost an important document, a medical prescription that supports his defence in a drug abuse case he is facing at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court.
The court refused to admit the medical sheet as exhibit in the trial, with Principal Resident Magistrate Cyprian Mkeha upholding some grounds of objection by Principal State Attorney Timon Vitalis that the medical document failed the admissibility tests.
The prescription, prepared by an American doctor, allowed Manji to use some medicines whose components contain small elements of narcotic drugs under which he is charged with. In the trial, the businessman is charged with consumption of Heroine (diacetyl-morphine).
The defence, through its witness, Maria Rugarabamu, had sought to tender the document, which is an e-mail printout sent to the businessman by the American doctor, who has been treating him following heart complications.
In her examination in chief, however, the witness told the court that she was surprised to hear that Manji was charged with the offence. According to the witness, she stayed with Manji for about 19 years as was her boss working with the Quality Group Limited.
“I have seen him since then being a hard worker, a good man, a leader and whenever one sought his assistance, he was available to do the best he could,” Maria, a secretary working with the company, told the court.
Another witness, Inspector Eliud Mwakawaka, a medical doctor at Keko Remand Prison, confirmed before the court that Manji is sick and has been using between 25 to 30 different types of drugs while in remand.
The witness testified that the businessman was in bad health condition when he was received at the prison on July 7, this year, from Muhimbili National Hospital’s Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute. He testified that they stayed with him until his discharge, recently.
He mentioned some of the drugs Manji had been using while in custody as crestor, Adderall, Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax and Diazepam. The witness testified that they could not allow him to use the drugs unless he produced a prescription from the doctor.
Led by advocate Hajra Mungula, for the businessman, the witness told the court that one of the prescriptions Manji had shown to prisons authorities includes the American doctor’s. The witness testified that there were other medicines Manji was using on prisons doctors’ prescriptions.
In the case, the prosecution alleges that Manji committed the offence on diverse dates between February 6 and 9, this year, at Upanga Sea View area within Ilala District in the city.
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