Suspect asks court to summon First Son
Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, senior presidential adviser on Special Operations.
KAMPALA- A man, who is accused of hacking into the Facebook account of the Senior Presidential Adviser on Special Operations, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has asked court to summon the complainant to court.
Prince Abwola Joel Otim, 30, a businessman in Kitgum District, made the request yesterday before the Specialised Utilities Wildlife and Standards Court when his case came up for hearing.
“The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) alleges that I impersonated Muhoozi. Your honour, I request that, that real Muhoozi is asked to appear in court,” Mr Otim submitted.
In reply, the trial magistrate, Ms Marion Mangeni, told him that prosecution chooses its witnesses, so court cannot honour his request.
Mr Otim is charged with four counts of electronic fraud, unauthorised access, unauthorised modification of computer material and personation, all contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
Court adjourned the matter to October 3 for hearing since the State prosecutor was indisposed.
Accusations
Prosecution contends that Mr Otim, between February and June within Uganda, unlawfully gained access into Gen Kainerugaba’s Facebook account and used it to send a deceitful message to Mr Stephen Oketayot’s phone, and caused him to send Shs102,000 to a phone number registered in the names of Otim, thereby securing unlawful gain.
It stated that between the same months, Mr Otim intentionally and unlawfully gained access to Gen Kainerugaba’s Twitter page.
On the count of unauthorised modification, it is asserted that the suspect did acts that caused illegal amendment of contents of the computer by hacking into Gen Kainerugaba’s Twitter page and intercepted social media chats of Oketayot.
Otim is also accused of falsely representing himself as Gen Kainerugaba on Facebook in order to obtain money from Oketayot.
