ISO employee jailed 2 years for stealing airtime

CRIME

A junior soldier, attached to Internal Security Organisation (ISO), who recently pleaded guilty to stealing airtime worth sh132m from city businessmen, has been sentenced to two years in Prison.

Yesterday, the General Court Martial, presided over by Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, handed the sentence to Sgt. George Acheda, 35, after it found him guilty of two counts of aggravated robbery.

Acheda, who joined the army in 1988, is a Senior None Commissioned Officer of the regular forces of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), formerly attached to ISO at Katonga detach, Nakawa division, in Kampala.

While awarding the sentence, Gutti considered 48 days the convict spent on remand at the Military headquarters in Makindye and the long period he served in the forces.

"The convict has no criminal record and his plea of guilty is a sign of remorsefulness," he noted.

While mitigating his sentence, Acheda recently said: "My co-accused made me believe that we were conducting an official operation, which ended up being a case of robbery."

Acheda, who was represented by Lt. Brian Mogi, also revealed that he was survived by 11 children and had asked court to award him a sentence that will enable him to remain in the army.

However, a 2-year-jail term means that the convict (Acheda) automatically faces dismissal form the army, with disgrace.

Acheda narrated that on the fateful night at about 9:00pm, L/CPL Johnson Mutundi, also attached to ISO, rang him and said his boss was going to send for him a car, which he will use for an operation with employees from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

He further stated that when he met the two people, who identified themselves as members of CMI, they jumped in a tinted super custom vehicle and drove to Old Taxi Park. At this point, he (Acheda) was informed that they were going to arrest a man in possession of military ware.

Later, they arrested the man (unidentified) at Kampala Copper Complex and dragged him into the car.

Acheda was battling the said charges with Moses Kasita, 40, and Henry Kabugo alias Dog, 37, both businessmen and residents of Nabweru, Wakiso and Kawempe in Kampala district respectively.

Kasita and Kabugo, who denied the charges, are being represented by Sarah Namuwage and Frank Kanduho.

According to prosecution, the trio and others still at large, on January 5, 2013 at about 11:30pm, along Nakivubo Green Street in Kampala, put businessmen Eddy Mukasa Kabaka and Sunday Venasio on gun point and stole airtime, cash,  a jacket, three bunches of keys, books of accounts and a calculator.