Museveni pardons Venezuelan drug trafficker, 78 other prisoners
Doralys Rodriguez Fagundez
What you need to know:
- The Venezuelan who was serving a combined 22-year-year jail term was listed with 78 other Ugandan nationals as pardoned by President Museveni in a prerogative of mercy.
At least 79 prisoners including a Venezuelan drug trafficker have been freed in Uganda under an early January presidential instrument of pardon.
“I hereby grant pardon to the persons below on public health and humanitarian grounds,” President Museveni wrote in a statement dated January 3, 2022.
Detained in Luzira Prison since June 2018, Venezuelan Doralys Rodriguez Fagundez was listed amongst other 78 male and female Ugandan nationals -now released- from about 15 separate prisons across the country.
The woman in her late 20s was found with narcotic drugs, arrested at Entebbe Airport in June 2018 and subsequently handed a concurrent 22-year-jail term by court in September 2018 after she was convicted of unlawful possession of drugs and drug trafficking in 2018.
Uganda Prison Services Spokesperson Frank Baine Monday afternoon told this publication that the prerogative of mercy emerging through the latest presidential instrument of pardon has already been effected.
What the law says
Under Article 121(1) (a) of the 1995 Ugandan constitution, the President may on the advice of the advisory committee exercise his right to pardon any person convicted of an offence, a pardon either free or subject to lawful conditions.
