Suspects who have run away from justice

When a suspect is detained, the law allows that person to be granted bail as long as he/she meets certain conditions. Some suspects and convicts who have been granted bail have escaped justice. Edward Anyoli looks at some of them.

BAD BLACK

Last year, Justice Stella Arach Amoko, formerly of the Court of Appeal, granted Shanita Namuyimbwa, aka Bad Black, sh100m cash bail. Her five sureties were required to execute a non-cash bond of sh10m.

Bad Black sought bail because she said she wanted to get treatment abroad. She claimed that her breast implants and a scar she had got out of a Caesarean section were rotting away.

She said she needed urgent medical attention which could only be accessed outside the prison. Arach granted bail on grounds that Namuyimbwa’s health was in danger due to im-plants in her breasts which had to be removed and this could not be done locally in Uganda.

But no sooner had she secured the bail, than she disappeared.The Court of Appeal issued an arrest warrant for her, after she failed to honour her bail terms. Bad Black had been convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for embezzling sh11b from Davenshan Limited, a company she co-owned with her former lover, David Greenhalgh. Principal state attorney Fred Kakooza had expressed fear that if granted bail, Bad Black would flee the country.

Bail in the law

The law relating to bail is that if someone has stood as a surety, that person must ensure that the accused does not disappear.

A surety is a person who guarantees that an accused person shall appear in court whenever he or she is required.

When granting bail, the courts consider whether a person standing as a surety can compel an accused person to attend the trial.

Courts usually set conditions for an accused person to be granted bail. If a suspect disappears, sureties are required to look for the accused for a given period of time. If the surety fails to trace the accused, it means the surety is liable to pay a certain amount of money to the Government or the surety can be sent to prison, as well as forfeiting money to the State.

trueTigawalana escaped when he was pronounced guilty

WHILE others may have jumped bail, former Mayuge chairman Bakali Ikoba Tigawalana is a fugitive. Tigawalana took to his heels after he was convicted of murder. Since December 17, 2009, when the Court of Appeal overturned his acquittal and declared him guilty of murdering his political rival, the Police are still hunting for him.

Court declared Tigawalana guilty in absentia. His woes started on December 17, 2003. He had been elected LC5 chairman of Mayuge in 2001. His rival, Fred Musiitwa Nume, challenged his election by questioning his academic qualifi cations. Musitwa wanted court to nullify Tigawalana’s election.

THE GENESIS OF THE CASE
On the fateful day, Musiitwa went to another court for a different case. Before leaving home, he had told his wife that his life was in danger and handed her all his private documents, saying he was not sure he would return home alive. A few days earlier, his house had been set on fire. He suspected Tigawalana was behind the incident. He reported the matter to the Police, but nothing was done.

On January 16, 2003, while Musiitwa was in Kityerera County courthouse in Mayuge, the killers were waiting outside. Some of them sat in the courtroom to ensure he did not leave unnoticed. After court adjourned, as Musiitwa walked towards his car, the kidnappers swamped him, in the presence of witnesses. They forced him into a waiting car and sped off. His car was left parked at the court premises.

According to a confession by one of the kidnappers, at about 8:30pm, they put him in another special hire car and drove him to Bujuko Forest in Mityana. All the way to Bujuko, the kidnappers kept telephoning Tigawalana for instructions. The killers strangled Musiitwa and threw his body in a pit, thinking he had died. Thereafter, the killers called and informed Tigawalana that Musiitwa was dead.

Tigawalana insisted on proof beyond doubt, prompting the killers to drive back to the scene to double check. Unfortunately for Musiitwa, they found him trying to crawl out and they fi nished him off with gunshots. The Police in Bujuko retrieved the body and since there were no claimants, they buried it in a mass grave at Bukasa cemetery, behind Namboole Stadium, near Kampala. Later, relatives showed up and Musiitwa’s body was exhumed and reburied in Buwenge.

The kidnappers were Pte. Ezironi Bwambale, Lt. Gadhafi Yakubu Walusimbi and Sgt. Habib Kiganiira. The murderers reportedly headed back to Mayuge to collect their pay from Tigawalana the same night. He is said to have told them on phone to wait for him at a lodge in Bugembe, Jinja, where he would find them at 3:00am. Tigawalana, however, did not turn up at the agreed venue in Jinja, prompting them to go to his house at around 5:30am. There, they learnt that he had sneaked away to Lira, saying he was going to attend the burial of an LC5 chairman. The car in which Musiitwa had.

YANG ZHANG

trueYang Zhang is a suspected Chinese paedophile accused of aggravated child traffi cking and defi lement. Zhang was granted bail, but has since disappeared. Court has issued an arrest warrant for him. Justice Rugadya Atwooki, who had been assigned the case, cancelled Zhang’s bail so that his trial could be expedited. Through his lawyers, Zhang secured bail from the Court of Appeal.

Justice Remmy Kasule of the Court of Appeal re-instated Zhang’s bail, saying the cancellation was improper. Principal state attorney Susan Okalany had opposed granting him bail, reasoning that he would abscond and interfere with the expeditious trial. On April 2, 2013, the High Court granted bail to Zhang and ordered that he deposits his passport in court, executes a cash bail of sh100m, and reports to the court deputy registrar twice a month. He was also barred from travelling abroad without court’s permission.

But at the start of the trial in June, Zhang failed to show up. Zhang is accused, alongside Faith Orland, of aggravated trafficking of children, aggravated defi lement and simple defi lement. The suspects allegedly committed the offences between September and November 2012.

It is also alleged that the suspects engaged in the transportation of children through abduction from Kirombe Custom Corner cell in Gulu district to Lusaze ‘A’ in Rubaga Division, Kampala in order to engage in sexual acts with them. It is also alleged that during the same period, Zhang defi led children aged between nine and 13 years

Police reacts

IBIN SSENKUMBI, THE KAMPALA
METROPOLITAN POLICE SPOKESPERSON
Ssenkumbi said they were still hunting for all suspects and convicts with warrants of arrest. “Sometimes they hide, thinking they have escaped arrest, but at the end of it we apprehend them,” Ssenkumbi said. He added that the Police were trying to liaise with their units countrywide to ensure that all those wanted were arrested. He said Interpol was hunting for those who are living outside Uganda.

ASAN KASINGYE, THE DIRECTOR OF INTERPOLUGANDA
Kasingye, the Interpol Uganda boss, told Saturday Vision that they had not yet asked Interpol in other countries to help them with the arrest of the fugitives. “We have to fi rst get a formal request from Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate (CIID). That request has not yet come to our desk,” he said. Attempts to get a comment from CIID were futile as the boss, Grace Akullo’s phone was answered by her aide, who told us to leave message before we could receive a response from her. By press time, we had not yet received any response.