Defence lawyers raised serious concerns in court after accusing the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of detaining suspects without proper evidence and circulating their photos online in a way they described as humiliating.
Their arguments were centred on a case involving alleged fake identity cards, where they insisted that the treatment of the suspects went against basic rights and fairness.
This was brought to the attention of the court during a proceeding held on Monday, December 9, 2025, where the lawyers argued that several respondents were already unwell at the time of arrest, including a young mother who arrived in court unable to breastfeed because of how she had been handled while in custody.
The defence team, led by Danstan Omari, maintained that the DCI owed the suspects an apology for what they called arrests made without any supporting evidence.
They told the court that if any evidence truly existed, it should have been clearly presented in the application seeking to keep the suspects in custody. Omari explained that the situation being handled was not the kind of emergency or sudden threat that would justify rushing people into court without proper investigation.
He argued that simply using the eCitizen platform to fill out forms and printing several of them was not enough to justify treating someone as a criminal.
The lawyers went further to accuse the State of violating the rights and liberties of the respondents by circulating their images across official websites and other online platforms. They said the manner in which the photos were shared suggested an intention to shame the suspects even before the court could determine whether they had done anything wrong.
One of the lawyers added that if the State fails to prove any wrongdoing, then the suspects deserve compensation for the damage caused by the public exposure and detention.
The advocates also pointed out what they described as a pattern of arrests being made deliberately on Fridays.
According to them, this tactic was meant to keep suspects in custody over the weekend, which they argued served no real purpose other than to stretch the humiliation until the following Monday.
They insisted this practice was unfair, especially when the arrests were not backed by strong evidence. Senior Counsel Harun Ndubi supported these concerns, saying the State had not provided any substantial links between the suspects and terrorism, a claim that had been mentioned during the arrests.
Another lawyer noted that one immigration officer had been arrested with nothing incriminating beyond his own phone, raising further doubts about the strength of the case.
The defence also asked the court to consider the wellbeing of the young mother who had not been allowed to breastfeed and another respondent who was reportedly ill but still kept in custody.
They argued that these conditions were unnecessary and did not reflect humane treatment. Magistrate Kiage is expected to issue a ruling on the request for detention on December 11, a decision that will determine whether the suspects continue to remain in custody or are released as the case proceeds.
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