Court drops Aine assault case

Kampala. The assault case against Christopher Aine, the former head of former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi security, has been dismissed.
The dismissal was confirmed on Tuesday by Mr Mike Chibita, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in an interview with Daily Monitor at his chambers in Kampala. The case had been before Jinja Chief Magistrate’s Court.
“The Jinja file was dismissed at some point for want of prosecution. We heard that the complainants had lost interest,” Mr Chibita said.
In the case, Mr Aine had been accused of assaulting police officers who tried to arrest him during Mr Mbabazi’s pre-election campaign meetings in Jinja ahead of the launch of the latter’s presidential bid in 2015.
On the second case against Mr Aine, the DPP said more investigations are to be carried out on the file which he said is still pending before Ntungamo Police Station.
“The one of Ntungamo, we sent it for further investigations including the identification of the suspects since they had not carried out an identification parade of the people who were implicated,” Mr Chibita stated.
Mr Aine mysteriously went missing for about five months during the presidential election campaigns after police started hunting him and put a Shs20m prize on his head for allegedly assaulting supporters of rival candidate Mr Museveni in Ntungamo.
Aine’s disappearance raised anxiety in Mbabazi’s camp, his family and at one time, speculation became rife that he had been killed.
The police placed a Shs20m bounty on Aine’s head for whoever gave information leading to his arrest.
His cousin Mr Ezra Kabugo asked the High Court to compel police to produce him, saying they were the party he was last seen with him.
However, in her ruling, High Court judge Ms Lydia Mugambe Ssali rejected the request and ruled that court could only order police to produce the missing person if it’s sure that indeed that person was in their custody. She said court had no evidence that he was in police’s hands.
Later in April last year, Aine showed up at Gen Salim Saleh’s home in Garuga, Entebbe. Mr Aine said he had been hiding in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and chose to disappear because he wanted to stay out of danger that hang over him after the Ntungamo clashes.
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