| Chapter 1: | Corruption and Circumstantial Evidence |
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The main objectives of this study are to sharpen the deterrence measure by carrying an examination and analysis of circumstantial evidence and to identify the degree of probative value required to foster the admissibility of such evidence in corruption cases through the judicial process of adjudication.
Experience and practice in the area of combating corruption has with consistency and certainty shown that most of the corruption cases that are admitted to the court arena or jurisdiction are invariably based on circumstantial evidence, and the Tanzanian courts are weary of relying on such evidence unless ‘the chain of circumstantial evidence is unbroken and leads to no other conclusion but the guilt of the accused persons’.55 As we show in chapters 3 and 4 of the study, there is only one corruption case that reached the High Court (HC), and one of the appeal grounds was the reliability of circumstantial evidence in corruption cases.56
The choice of this circumstantial evidence tool or unit of analysis is deliberate because, in the rule of law and legal framework context, more often than not, corruption is an offence committed on the run: it is committed through conspiracy, in secrecy, and in the dark. It is therefore very difficult to prove a corruption case through direct evidence because it is reported after the event. By its very nature and essence, corruption is illusive and concealed in its operation. Therefore, to uncover it, the method of detection precedes the investigation; hence, in chapter 5, attention is devoted to the use of intelligence and undercover investigation in corruption and sophisticated economic crimes.
We examine the concept and practice of the circumstantial evidence test to be applied through the judicial process in corruption cases. This examination is linked to the way corruption has become so endemic in our society, and the tools that are available to reverse the trend have to be analysed and reexamined. Amongst these tools is the circumstantial evidence test in the judicial process.