Arinaitwe Rejects Woman Assessor

“I DON’T want a woman in my case. Women are sentimental,” Richard Arinaitwe, 26, the suspected serial killer, told the High Court yesterday. Solomon Muyita writes that Arinaitwe is currently serving a 19-year jail term for attempted murder of a city Chief Magistrate and robbery. He is also facing murder charges in connection with the murder of an American NGO worker.Justice Vincent Kagaba had appointed a woman and male assessors but Arinaitwe rejected the lady.Women are sentimental. Since the victim in the case is a lady, the woman may be biased,” he said.Justice Kagaba relented and appointed another man. He also fixed hearing of the case to start on June 18. Arinaitwe is charged with the murder of an American NGO worker, Cecilia Maris Goetz, at Hotel Equatoria in Kampala in 1998. Goetz worked with the Minnesota International Health Volunteers, which had a field station in Sembabule district.It is alleged that Arinaitwe attacked the American at the hotel, shortly after she returned from the field at about 9.30.pm. A hotel pageboy, who had Goetz’s fax, rushed to her room with it, but when he knocked on her door, there was no response for some time. But subsequently, a man opened the door and received the fax, saying, “It is okay.” When the pageboy returned to Goetz’s room to tell her to place her telephone receiver properly, he found her lying dead. Her bedding was soaked in fresh blood.Ends