Assessors advise court to convict Magara murder suspects, judgement day set
In a joint layman’s opinion delivered on Thursday (July 30), Sarah Babirye, Brenda Magoba and Ritah Padera said prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the ingredients of the offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder that have been slapped on the accused.
Court assessors in the Susan Magara murder trial have advised the presiding High Court judge, Alex Mackay Ajiji, to convict all nine accused persons. (File photo)
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Court assessors in the Susan Magara murder trial have advised the presiding High Court judge, Alex Mackay Ajiji, to convict all nine accused persons who have been indicted over the heinous crime.
They are: Yusuf Lubega, Mahad Kisalita, Ismail Bukenya, Muzamir Ssali, Abubaker Kyewolwa, Hassan Wasswa, Abbas Musa Buvumbo, Hussein Kato Miiro and Hajara Nakandi.
In a joint layman’s opinion delivered on Thursday (July 30), Sarah Babirye, Brenda Magoba and Ritah Padera said prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the ingredients of the offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder that have been slapped on the accused.
“In our observations, we have looked at the accused persons’ demeanour at times being sarcastic. In our view, we have found that the prosecution case outweighs the defence. We find that the prosecution has proved the ingredients of all of the two offences of kidnapping with intent to procure a ransom and murder. We, therefore, advise the court to find them guilty,” the assessors said.
Assessors are non-lawyers who, by law, sit alongside the trial judge in the High Court criminal trials and, at the end of the trial, are required to advise the trial judge either to convict or acquit the accused persons based on the evidence adduced in court by the prosecution, which bears the burden to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
However, the assessors’ opinions are non-binding on the judges as they can completely decide to ignore them.
Judgement date set
The accused persons have been in detention since April 2018 when they were arrested over the heinous crime. This means that they have been on remand for over six years.
Evidence adduced in court shows that all the suspects belonged to the makeshift mosque at Usafi in Mengo-Kisenyi in Kampala.
In February last year, the court ruled that they had a case to answer after it analysed the evidence from 46 prosecution witnesses.
The murder
Susan Magara, the 28-year-old daughter of businessman John Magara, was kidnapped on February 7, 2018, along Kabaka Anjagala Road in Mengo, a Kampala suburb, as she drove back to her home about three kilometres away.
Her kidnappers then contacted her family and demanded one million US dollars (about sh3.65b) as ransom.
Court heard that her two fingers were chopped off by the ransom seekers, packed them in an envelope together with a flash disc showing the footage as they were being cut and sent the same to her family in a bid to compel her family to pay the ransom.
Despite the family having delivered $200,000 (about sh700 million) to the ransom seekers, Magara was brutally murdered by her captors.
Chief state attorneys Joseph Kyomuhendo, Sherifah Nalwanga and Irene Nakimbugwe are prosecuting the case while John Kabagambe, Richard Kabagambe and Simon Wanda represent the nine accused persons.
The case
Prosecution alleges that the accused and others still at large on February 7, 2018, kidnapped Magara with intent to procure a ransom for her liberation from the danger of being murdered.
The indictment indicates that Magara was a victim of a ransom scheme hatched by Yakub Byensi, a former Allied Democratic Force (ADF) combatant who hails from Bunyoro just like Susan and that he was known to her family.
Armed with the information, the suspects, according to the prosecution team, started trailing her until they kidnapped her. The suspects allegedly first held her at Nakandi's home in Nateete and later accused Bukenya’s home in Konge II in Makindye Division, Kampala.
Magara’s two fingers were chopped off and sent to her family to show them how determined they were to kill their daughter if the ransom money was not paid.
The indictment indicates that the suspects resolved to kill her because releasing her would expose them.
Prosecution says the suspects used part of the money to procure several motor vehicles and land in Buikwe and Luwero districts, respectively.