By CIPESA Writer |
After five days in police custody, Jamii Forums founder Maxence Melo has been released today (December 19). Melo, who was detained at a police station in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, was granted interim release with six individuals standing as surety for a bond amount of 6 million Tanzanian shillings (USD 2,700).
Melo was last Friday charged with three offences stemming from his alleged refusal to release user data from the popular news and discussion portal Jamii Forums. He is faced with two counts of not complying with a disclosure order under Section 22 (2) of the Cyber Crimes Act of 2015 and one count of managing a domain that is not registered in Tanzania under Section 79(c) of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (2010).
For each charge, two individuals stood surety for the accused at 1 million Tanzanian shillings (USD 450) each. According to his lawyer, another bail condition set for Melo is that he should not travel outside of Dar es Salaam without court’s permission.
The case is scheduled to be heard in court on December 29, 2016.
19Dec