Fraud, kidnap charges against Bakaleke dropped

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has dropped kidnap and fraud charges involving sh1.5b against Assistant Commissioner of Police Siraje Bakaleke.

ACP Bakaleke is facing the charges together with six senior police officers; Robert Munezero, 31; Innocent Nuwagaba, 32; Robert Ray Asiimwe, 37; Junior Amanya, 28; Gustavus Babu, 27, Kenneth Zirintusa, 26.

Others include city lawyer Paul Wanyoto Mugoya and businessman Samuel Mulowooza Nabeta.

On Monday, when the case came up for mention the state prosecutor Harriet Angom informed the court that DPP has decided to discontinue proceedings against the accused persons.

"This is to inform the court that DPP has decided to discontinue proceedings against the accused persons," she told the court.

It was purported that the accused kidnapped and defrauded three South Korean businessmen of $415,000 (about sh1.5b) in a gold scam on February 8, 2018. They are Jan Seungkwon, Park Seunghoon, and Ha Dongsub.

The prosecution contended that Bakaleke and others still at large committed arbitrary acts by causing the illegal arrest and confinement of the Koreans.

It was further alleged that the suspects in the same period kidnapped the Koreans with intent to cause them to be secretly and wrongfully confined.

Court records indicate that one of the policemen had promised to protect the Koreans in a suspected gold smuggling cartel from DR Congo, but their Ugandan agent refused the deal, which prompted their arrest on alleged trumped-up terrorism charges.