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The hearing of the case in which nine people are accused of kidnapping and murder of Susan Magara on February 28, 2018, has been deferred to March 25, 2024.

The new hearing dates for the case have been communicated to the parties by presiding Judge Alex Ajiji.

Last week, the case did not proceed because the judge was taking part in the African Chief Justice’s summit on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) at Mestil Hotel in Kampala.

The accused are Abbas Musa Buvumbo, Yusuf Lubega, Abubakar Kyewolwa, Hussein Wasswa, Muzamiru Ssali, Hassan Kato-Miiro, Amir Ismail Bukenya, Hajara Nakandi and Mahad Kisalita, the former imam of Usafi makeshift mosque in Mengo-Kisenyi.

So, far over 15 witnesses have testified in the case. Chief state attorneys Joseph Kyomuhendo, Sherifah Nalwanga, and senior state attorney Iren Nakimbugwe are prosecuting the case while Richard Kumbuga, John Kabagambe, Samuel Wanda, and Zaina Nabukenya represent the accused persons.

The kidnap and murder

Court has since heard that Susan, 28, a daughter to businessman John Magara was kidnapped on February 7, 2018, on Kabaka Anjagala road in Mengo as she drove back home in Lungujja in Rubaga Division, Kampala district.

Her kidnappers then contacted the family and demanded $1m (about shillings 3.65 billion at the then exchange rate) before they could release her.

Unfortunately, she was murdered in cold blood and three weeks later her body was recovered from Kigo in Wakiso district on February 27, 2018, where it had been dumped despite the family having delivered $200,000 (about shillings 700 million) to the kidnappers.

Susan worked as a cashier at the Mengo-based Bwendero Dairy Farm belonging to her father, Magara.

During her requiem mass at Our Lady of Africa Catholic Church in Mbuya, the family revealed that her (Susan) killers had chopped off her fingers and sent them together with a recording of the incident to the family.

The prosecution alleges that the accused and others still at large on February 7, 2018, kidnapped Susan with the intent to procure a ransom for her liberation from the danger of being murdered.

The indictment indicates that Susan was a victim of a ransom scheme hatched by Yakub Byensi, a former combatant with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who hails from Bunyoro like Susan, and that he was known to her family as well Lubega who used to work in Container Village with Susan’s mother. Byensi is still at large.

Armed with insider information, the suspects, according to the prosecution, started trailing Susan until they kidnapped her in Lungujja on her way home.

They allegedly first took her to Nakandi’s home in Nateete and later to Amir Bukenya’s home in Konge II Makindye from where her two fingers were cut off and sent them to her family to show their determination to murder her if ransom money was not paid.

The indictment indicates that the decision to kill Susan was because releasing her would expose the kidnappers.