Murder dominates High Court Criminal session in Lira

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LIRA

The High Court sitting in Lira is to try 90 criminal cases of which murder tops the list.

According to the case list released by the Assistant Registrar, the 90 cases include murder with 54 cases, aggravated defilement with 26 cases, aggravated robbery has six and rape has five cases.

There are 13 women to be tried, most of them in murder cases and a few in aggravated robbery.

The session scheduled to start next week with funding from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Uganda Office Project is rescheduled to Friday as the presiding Judge Duncan Gaswaga was unwell.

The UNODC program “aimed at creating an enabling environment for equitable access to justice and strengthening responses aimed at countering organized crime.”

The cause list indicates that 146 accused persons will be tried for the respective allegations against them.

Godfrey SsaalamuNgobi, the assistant registrar said the Government of Uganda is sponsoring part of the trial and the UNODC Project is also giving funds.

He observed that some have opted for Plea Bargain and others are going for a full trial.

“If the UNODC gives them funds, we shall try all the 90 cases but if the funding is not there, we shall use our little resources to try what we can manage,” Ngobi said.

High Profile cases on the list

Emmanuel Awany, 32, the son of a retired Lira Pentecostal Bishop and two others are to be tried for the murder of Vincent Paul Keto, assistant administrator of Uganda Martyrs University, Ngetta Campus in Lira City.

The body of Vincent Paul Keto, was found on October 8, 2021, found dumped at Okole swamp in Kole district.

Awany admitted in his charge and caution statement that he hired people sh300, 000 to discipline his rival but not to kill him.

Pathology’s findings indicate that he was injected all over the body with poison.

The same court will also try a group of eight peasants accused of the brutal double murder of their niece and her two-year-old daughter over a land wrangle at Aloc A village, Odoro Parish, Aromo sub-county, in Lira district.

The home of Ketty Akwero destroyed by her uncles over land wrangle. Akwero and her two year old daughter were brutally murdered.

Ketty Akwero, 42, a single mother of eight was on March 6, 2020, killed together with her two-year-old daughter Dolika Akullu and her homestead set ablaze destroying everything therein.

Ten people, all her close relatives were arrested and committed for trial in the High Court for two counts of murder, attempted murder, and arson.

One of them, Alex Ocen, 21, pleaded guilty under a plea bargain to all counts and was sentenced to 20 years for each count of murder, 10 years for attempted murder, and five years for arson, to run concurrently.