Witness avoiding incriminating questions
I was watching a television show from the USA, where a witness refused to answer a question in order to protect himself. The Court allowed them to refuse to answer. This part inspired me to investigate what the Tanzanian law says about a witness refusing to answer an incriminating question. Please enlighten me.
HJ, Dar es Salaam
This is a very interesting question. In Tanzania, a witness cannot be excused from answering a question because the answer is incriminating. Section 141 of the Evidence Act [Cap. 16 R.E 2022] provides that a witness shall not be excused from answering any question as to any matter relevant to the matter in issue in any suit or in any civil or criminal proceedings, on the ground that the answer to that question will incriminate, or may tend directly or indirectly to incriminate the witness, or that it will expose, or tend directly or indirectly to expose her/him to a penalty or forfeiture of any kind, or that it may establish or tend to establish that she/he owes a debt or is otherwise subject to a civil suit.
Nonetheless, section 141 adds that, no such answer, which a witness shall be compelled to give, shall subject him to any arrest or prosecution, or be proved against him in any subsequent criminal proceedings, except to a prosecution for giving false evidence by such answer.
From the foregoing provision, you will see that the section has two limbs. First, it targets to compel a witness to answer questions even when the answer may be incriminating. The second limb grants immunity to a witness who has information that can help establish matters in issue which she/he would not have otherwise provided because it exposes them. Your lawyer can guide you further.