Aircraft Seized In Canada Finally Delivered To Tanzania

Dar es Salaam, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Dec, 2019 ) :An aircraft due for delivery to Air Tanzania but seized by the Canadian authorities last month finally arrived in Tanzania Saturday.

Images broadcast on state television showed the Canadian-made Bombardier Q400 landing at Mwanza, in the northwest of the country.

The aircraft was seized in November as part of a $33-million court lawsuit launched by a former landowner over Tanzania's nationalisation of his land in the 1980s.

Tanzania's President John Magufuli did not go into details of how the case had been resolved, but said "government efforts enabled the aeroplane to be released".

Pamela O'Donnell, Canada's ambassador to Tanzania, offered no clue as to how the dispute had been resolved.

But at a ceremony in Mwanza, she said: "I believe this cooperation in the aviation sector will continue and boost Tanzania's tourism as well." In August, an Airbus 220-300 aircraft was seized in South Africa's Johannesburg airport after it landed on a flight from Tanzania, but a court ordered its release in September.

Tanzania's Foreign Minister Palamagamba Kabudi said last month that the same person had been behind that incident.

In 2017, in a separate case, another Q400 turbo-prop plane was impounded by a Canadian construction firm over a $38 million lawsuit.

That plane was later released, reportedly after a financial settlement.

In the 1980s, Tanzania's then government nationalised a massive, privately owned bean and seed farm, seizing everything including equipment, 250 cars and 12 small planes.

The former owner, who is now 86, was awarded $33 million (almost 30 million Euros) in compensation in the 1990s -- but the government only paid $20 million.

The outstanding balance of $16 million has accrued interest over the decades and now stands at $33 million, according to his lawyer.

The farmer has been fighting for decades to get the outstanding amount.