Soldier sentenced to 30 years for killing student

By Michael Odeng

THE General Court Martial has sentenced a UPDF soldier to 30 years-imprisonment for killing a student of Human Technical Development Center in Lira district.

Private Abubaker Mugwanante, a soldier attached to 73rd Infantry Battalion was convicted of murder and sentenced by the presiding chairman, Maj. Gen Levi Karuhanga. He shot dead one Samuel Aduket.

The court ruled that the convict exhibited malice aforethought in his conduct, adding that the incident was not accidental. Karuhanga also ruled that the deceased’s death was unlawfully caused by Mugwanante.

“The alleged orders to the accused to arrest bhangi smokers, thieves and gamblers did not justify the accused’s action of taking law in his hands,” Karuhanga ruled. The accused has spent 10 years on remand.

Karuhanga noted that the accused ought to have known that his act was likely to cause grievous bodily harm since he was neither insane nor suffering from diminished responsibility.

Karuhanga stated that there is no evidence of unlawful attack by the deceased on the accused. “The accused was not in any way in imminent danger of death or any bodily harm at the time he attacked the deceased or during the attack”.

Prosecution led by Maj. Fredrick Kangwamu says that the convict on July 6, 2006 entered the school compound without his superior commander’s orders and found the deceased sitting with other students in the compound. He opened fire shots and killed the deceased.

“The convict was not tasked to shoot and kill them and hence his conduct was unauthorized,” Kangwamu stated.

He therefore asked court to award the convict a deterrent sentence in order to send a signal to other soldiers who take laws into their hands.    

The defence led by Ronald Iduuli on the other hand argued that the convict together with others were on a lawful duty to arrest bhangi smokers and thieves. He added that the convict committed the offence in the course of execution of that duty.

He said the convict was attacked by suspected bhangi smokers who attempted to disarm him and during the scuffle; accidentally a bullet was discharged from his rifle killing Aduket.  

“This was an accident, a person is not criminally responsible for an act or omission which occurs by accident,” Iduuli added. He prayed for a lenient punishment.

According to the medical doctor Henry Yine, the postmortem showed that the deceased died of gunshots, that injured the heart and liver, the injuries were consistent with the attack of the accused. 

In his defence, Mugwanante told court that he found people smoking opium and playing cards behind the school and when he ordered them to sit down, they instead picked and threw at him stones and sticks. 

He added that one of them grabbed him and in a scuffle that ensued bullets were discharged from his gun, killing the deceased.