Twists and turns have continued to surround the disposal of 296 tonnes of fish seized earlier this year in a foreign ship.

The Government is now asking the High Court to allow it to freely distribute the fish to public institutions.

Surprisingly, the move comes just two weeks after the minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries, Mr John Magufuli, announced that he would distribute the fish freely to at least 115 public institutions.

But yesterday a lawyer defending some of the 36 crew members of MV Tawariq who were arrested earlier this year illegally fishing in Tanzania waters, challenged the application. He argued that it was merely to justify Mr Magufuli's directive which contradicts an earlier order of the court.

A month ago, Madam Justice Raziah Sheikh allowed the Government to dispose the fish by market modes other than international tendering ordered earlier by the court following a request by the state that international tendering was too difficult to execute.

This is the third time the Government has filed an application to vary conditions for the sale of the fish after it failed to execute three previous disposal orders.

The first was issued on October 1 when the court allowed the state to sell the fish by way of international tendering.

But a week later, the Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries complained to the director of public prosecution (DPP) that the condition was difficult to execute. It said this was because international tendering involved a long time and procedure for such perishable goods.

Following the concern, the DPP filed an application seeking variation of the condition to sell the fish through international tendering.

On October 20 Justice Sheikh granted the application. She thereafter ordered that the fish be sold through international or national tendering procedures or by public auction or any other convenient and suitable market mode that would facilitate easy and speedy disposal of the fish.

However, exactly a month today, the Government says the disposal conditions were difficult to execute as it has not received any prospective tender application for buying the fish.

"This application is of extreme urgency as the orders of this court dated October 1, 2009 and November 20, 2009 in respect of the disposal of the fish are not easy to execute as to date no perspective buyer has shown interest to bid," reads part of the application.

The Government now says the delay has led to further depreciation of the value of the fish and increased storage charges.

Yesterday, counsel for nine of the accused persons, Captain Ibrahim Bendera, challenged the application as incompetent and asked the court to strike it out.

Mr Bendera argued that the application was incompetent because the court had completed its business on the matter and could no longer vary orders which it had already varied.

Mr Bendera argued that filing of the application was an abuse of court process because the prayers sought by the Government were merely to justify actions by Mr Magufuli, contrary to the court's order.

According to an affidavit by the director of fisheries, Mr Godfrey Nanyaro, a recent valuation of the fish shows that its current market value was $720,000 and $276,000 on the international and local markets respectively.

He said the current status of the fish contributed to failure to get bidders and the continued storage would lead to further depreciation in the value of the fish.

According to the Livestock and Fisheries ministry, the storage cost of the fish has reached Sh1billion. But the Government says it was ready to pay the respondents the amount equal to the value of the fish in the event the High Court rules in their favour.

Meanwhile, the hearing of an appeal by former Temeke district court magistrate Jamila Nzota who was jailed in May for three years for soliciting a bribe is scheduled to begin today.

Ms Nzota is challenging both the conviction and sentence passed by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in May after it found her guilty of receiving Sh700,000 in bribe to decide a case before her in favour of one of the parties.