Katuramu appeal judgement put off

By Hillary NsambuTHE Court of Appeal will on a date to be named later give judgment in a murder case against former Tooro Prime Minister John Sanyu Katuramu.“We shall give our judgment in this case on notice,” the Deputy Chief Justice, Laetitia Mukasa-Kikonyogo, Justices S.G. Engwau and Amos Twinomujuni, said at the close of Katuramu’s first appeal against the conviction and death sentence. Katuramu, his nephew Patrick Kwezi and Alex Twinomugisha alias Twine, a former NRA Kadogo (boy soldier), were convicted of shooting dead Tooro Prince Charles Happy Kijanangoma and a private security guard on March 25, 1999 at Palace View Bar in Fort Portal.Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, who is also Senior Principal State Attorney, Amos Ngoloobe, had earlier asked the appellate court to uphold the conviction and death sentence against the appellants, saying there was enough and circumstantial evidence incriminating them. But, Kampala senior defence advocates, Edward Ddamulira Muguluma, Ezekiel Nsubuga-Mubiru and Protazio Ayigihugu, who represented the appellants, asked the court to quash the conviction and set aside the death sentence.They said the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.In September 2001, Justice John Bosco Katutsi of the High Court, convicted Katuramu, Kwezi and Twinomugisha of the murder of Kijanangoma and Kaganda.The trial court found that Katuramu facilitated the murder and Twinomugisha pulled the trigger. Kwezi was found guilty of co-ordinating the plot to kill Kijanangoma.