Nasur Released

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has pardoned and ordered the immediate release of Lt. Col Nasur Abdallah who has been on death row at Luzira Maximum Security Prison since 1979, reports Charles Ariko and Yunus Abbey. Nasur, a former Central Province Governor during the Idi Amin regime, had been sentenced to death over the alleged murder of the late Alderman Walugembe, the former mayor of Masaka, killed in 1972. The Commissioner of Prisons, Mr. Joseph Etima, in a statement issued yesterday said, “His Excellency the President of Uganda has pardoned Lt. Col. Nasur Abdallah of the sentence imposed on him and has directed that he be set free.” Nasur was the only one released yesterday. The fate of his colleagues and former Northern Region governor, Brig Ali Fadhul, who was also sentenced to death, awaits presidential pardon. Nasur, in his late 50s, was arrested from Kakamega, Kenya where he fled after Amin’s overthrow in 1979 and was repatriated to Uganda. He unsuccessfully appealed against his sentence several times. In December 1999, religious leaders who visited Luzira Prison and interacted with the inmates, appealed to Museveni to pardon Nasur and other inmates who had been on death sentence for long. The religious leaders included Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala, Archbishop Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo and Al-hajji Idris Kaseneene. Nasur, who was also National Council of Sports chairman in the 1970s, has been one of the long-serving prisoners in Luzira. In 1978, he accompanied the Cranes, the national soccer team, to Ghana for the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament where Uganda lost 2-1 to the host Ghana. Ends