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KAMPALA - The Nakasero-based Anti-Corruption Court is today, April 29, 2024, expected to rule whether to admit as evidence a charge and caution statement of the account manager in a case where he is facing embezzlement charges in relation to shillings 2.2 billion.

Justice Jane Okuo Kajuga, last week scheduled the ruling after both the defence and prosecution argued the case of a trial within a trial involving accounts manager Arthur Buyemba.

Court will rule in Abacus Parental Drugs case in shillings 2.2 billion case in relation to the human resource manager and account manager, who are facing charges of embezzlement.

Others: Hope Kabajungu and Marion Nakiriza are accused of money laundering charges.

A trial within a trial

A trial within a trial is a complete trial on its own, and for the court to hold a trial within a trial, it puts the main trial on hold and calls on both parties to prove whether a statement was voluntarily obtained from an accused person. Witnesses are called, cross-examined and tender exhibits in court.

Defence lawyer Asuman Nyonyintono applied for a trial within trial, disputing Buyemba’s charge and caution statement on the grounds that the statement was not voluntarily recorded.

Nyonyintono submitted that his client was coerced into admitting the offence with a promise that he would be released on bond if he admitted the offence.

According to Nyonyintono, Buyemba was also denied legal representation by the Police at the time of recording the charge on December 4, 2018. He asked the court to disregard the charge and caution.

The prosecution, led by Stanley Baine from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), said Buyemba freely recorded the statement, read through it and agreed with the content before signing it. He added that the accused had the liberty to accept or reject the charges.

Prosecution’s case

It is alleged that Buyemba, Muwonge, and others still at large stole shillings 2.2 billion on November 26, 2018 at Abacus Parental Drugs Limited in Mbalala village in Mukono district, while employed as accounts manager and human resources respectively.

The prosecution alleges that in February 2016 and on December 26, 2017, Kabajungu at Stanbic Bank, Forest Mall Lugogo in Kampala, district, assisted Buyemba, her husband and another accused, Muwonge, to benefit from shillings 1.1 billion that was purportedly obtained as a result of a crime when she received the money through an account at Stanbic Bank.

According to the charge sheet, it is further alleged that Kabajungu, on April 1, 2018, at Stanbic Bank in Mukono district, helped Muwonge benefit from the known proceeds of the crime of shillings 804 million through her account.

In addition, it was alleged that Nakiriza, in January 2017, at the Stanbic Bank Mukono branch, assisted Muwonge in accessing shillings 250 million through her account, yet she knew that the money was fraudulently obtained.

Regarding the charge of conspiracy, the prosecution said Buyemba and Muwonge allegedly conspired with others still at large at the offices of Abacus Parental Drugs Limited in Mbalala Village, Nama sub-county in Mukono district, to defraud their employer through fictitious supply. 

All the accused denied the charges and are out on bail.