Suspects to be declared guilty first - Lokodo

Fr Simon Lokodo. PHOTO BY Geoffrey Sseruyange

What you need to know:

Crime. The burden of proof will now solely be on the suspect and not complainant.

Kampala. The minister of Ethics and Integrity, fr Simon Lokodo, has said government will borrow the French Law, where suspects are deemed guilty until proven innocent.
Mr Lokodo, who was speaking at the Integrity Forum organised by Uganda Revenue Authority in Kampala yesterday, said: “We are going to borrow the French Law. A suspect is guilty until proven innocent.”
“I am bringing other laws to fight corruption and beef up the Whistleblowers Protection Law,” he added.
When asked to clarify how government would go about the law, Mr Lokodo told Daily Monitor on telephone: “As government, we are looking at all possible ways through which we can fight corruption. If it means overhauling the law system, we shall do it.”
According to the current Ugandan law, a suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, the shift will require that the burden of proof is lifted from the complainant to the suspect.
The minister also said they are working on the non conviction-based recovery law as a beef-up to the current laws that seek to fight corruption.
The law will seek to recover stolen money or property from those suspected to have abused government resources.
Ugandan laws are adopted from the British law system under the Commonwealth Civil Procedure Act, which was amended in 2005.
Mr Lokodo also asked Ugandans to get involved in the fight against corruption and stop finger-pointing.