Jailed Pine car bond owner appeals 40-years jail term
What you need to know:
- Delivering her judgment, Justice Senoga said she had carefully evaluated both the prosecution and the defence evidence and found that the convicts had been squarely placed at the scene of crime at Pine Car Bond on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala on the fateful day.
- Prosecution evidence stated that Ssebuwufu and the six co-accused beat and tortured Katusabe with sticks and pangas (machetes) to death and also robbed her of her belongings after kidnapping her from her home on that fateful day.
The jailed businessman and Pine Car Bond owner, Muhammed Ssebuwufu and six others have listed four grounds in which they are seeking the Court of Appeal to overturn the 40 years jail term which was handed to them.
On June 24, High Court Judge Flavia Senoga Anglin handed Ssebuwufu a jail term of 40 years for torturing businesswoman Betty Donah Katusabe to death for failing to clear an outstanding debt of Shs9m.
The other convicts are Godfrey Kayiza, Philip Mirambe, Paul Tasingika, Yoweri Kitayimba, Damaseni Ssentongo and Shaban Odutu, who were sentenced to 30 and 20 years in jail for murder, aggravated robbery and kidnap with intent to murder.
Justice Senoga also ordered them to compensate the bereaved family of the late Katusabe with Shs100m.
In their memorandum of appeal, the group states that the trial judge erred in law and fact when she convicted them of the offences without proof of the essential ingredients of the offences beyond reasonable doubt.
The group also states that the judge failed to properly evaluate the evidence on record as a whole regarding their participation and or resolve key issues raised thus coming to a wrong conclusion.
Contradictory evidence
They further faulted the judge for basing on incredible and contradictory evidence to convict them and also giving them a manifestly harsh, excessive and illegal sentence.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Senoga said she had carefully evaluated both the prosecution and the defence evidence and found that the convicts had been squarely placed at the scene of crime at Pine Car Bond on Lumumba Avenue in Kampala on the fateful day.
Prosecution evidence stated that Ssebuwufu and the six co-accused beat and tortured Katusabe with sticks and pangas (machetes) to death and also robbed her of her belongings after kidnapping her from her home on that fateful day.
“There is no credible evidence that A1, A2, A3, A5, A6 and A8 disassociated themselves from the kidnap, attainment of attack on the deceased (Katusabe) that resulted in the injuries that caused her death. The available evidence placed the accused persons at the scene of crime and their defences are also hereby disproved and are rejected,” Justice Senoga ruled.
“I am in disagreement with the opinion of the assessors. I find the accused guilty on all the three counts of the offences. For the reasons given in this judgment, I find that prosecution proved the ingredient of participation of the accused in the commission of the offences beyond reasonable doubt,” she added.
