Cheeye loses appeal against jail

The Supreme Court has dismissed Teddy Sseezi Cheeye’s appeal in which he was challenging his conviction and 10-year prison sentence for embezzling sh120m from the Global Fund.

The court will give its reasons for rejecting Cheeye’s appeal later. The appeal was rejected by the Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki, yesterday. On the coram were Justices John Wilson Tsekooko, Christine Kitumba, Jotham Tumwesigye and Elizabeth Kisaakye.

In the appeal, Cheeye, 55, the former presidential advisor on economic monitoring, said he had been wrongly charged and convicted of embezzlement. 

He was returned to Luzira prison where he is serving his 10-year sentence.

Earlier, his lawyers said he should have been indicted for theft instead because he was not an employee of the Global Fund nor the health ministry.

However, the senior principal State Attorney, James Odumbi, opposed the appeal. 

He said Cheeye should have raised his arguments with the trial judge.

Odumbi said Cheeye procured the money from the Global Fund through his company, Uganda Centre for Accountability.

He added that Cheeye had unlimited access to the money because he was the sole signatory to it.

Odumbi also defended the Court of Appeal, saying being the first appellate court, it had properly evaluated the evidence on record before it made its decision in which it upheld the conviction and sentence against Cheeye.

In 2009, Justice John Bosco Katutsi, the former head of the Anti-Corruption Court, convicted Cheeye for embezzlement of sh120m that belonged to the Global Fund and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.