DPP withdraws appeal against Besigye

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has said that the state is no longer interested in pursuing an appeal against retired Col Dr Kizza Besigye's acquittal of the charges of rape.

In 2006, High Court judge emeritus John Bosco Katutsi acquitted Besigye who had been indicted for rape of a maid, describing the police investigations and the prosecution as "crude and amateurish".

Represented by David Mpanga at trial, the then FDC president Kizza Besigye denied the charges saying that the charges were politically motivated, which the state also denied as true. Mpanga in his final submissions also described the charges against his client as sheer fabrication and asked the trial court to dismiss them.

In his ruling then, the trial judge said: "the state dismally failed to prove its case against the accused".

According to the notice of withdrawal of the appeal, which Senior Assistant DPP David Ndamurani Ateenyi presented to the Assistant Registrar Court of Appeal, Ayebale Tumwebaze, "the DPP intends not to proceed with the prosecution of this appeal".