The Court of Appeal in its session held in Mbarara has been able to dispose off 33 cases and have the subsequent judgments delivered.
All judgments arising from this criminal session were delivered by the court’s Deputy Registrar, Ayebare Tumwebaze on behalf of Justices; Elizabeth Musoke, Stephen Musota and Remmy Kasule at Mbarara Main Prison.
In this session, six convicts who had earlier on been sentenced to 45 years and nine months on two counts of murder succeeded with their appeal and were released.
On setting the appellants free, the justices made a finding that proper investigations were never carried out by Police before convicting them.
“We must note that the handling of the investigations in this case by the police left a lot to be desired. Under normal circumstances, we would declare this a mistrial. The appellants have been, however, in custody for about 10 years since 2010. It would therefore occasion a miscarriage of justice if we order their retrial,’’ the ruling read in part.
Court also overturned the conviction and quashed the sentence of one of the convicts involved in the death of the late Daniel Karuhanga and five of his workers in Kiruhura district after the Justices ruled that prosecution had failed to place the convict at the scene of crime.
“We find the 3rd appellant was not placed at the scene of crime and therefore we acquit him of the charges of murder and aggravated robbery contrary to the Penal code Act,’’ the Court ruled.
The Court, however, upheld the conviction of his co-accused and sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment for Murder, 15 years for Aggravated Robbery and 10 years for Rape.
The Court reduced sentences in 16 Appeals and maintained the conviction in 10 matters. In two appeals, the Court substituted two sentences of convicts.
Speaking about the session, Ayebare revealed that hearing of these matters was done in June and promised that judgment in the few remaining cases will be delivered any time.
Ayebare also said that one appeal was completed at initial hearing in June adding that judgments for the remaining six matters will soon be delivered.
Next week, the same Court will deliver a number of judgments from its recently concluded Mbale session.
