Court orders gold scam suspects to defend themselves 

City Hall court has ordered five gold scam suspects, who were charged with five counts, to appear in court on August 27 and defend themselves.

Yesterday, the accused persons Stella Birungi Dindi, David Kironde alias Sam Ssimbwa Daudi, Richard Kamugisha, Nasser Kibirige Kilimana and Yazidi Kabonge Wamala appeared before Grade One Magistrate Beatrice Kainza who ordered them to defend themselves.

The suspects are accused of defrauding Assi Soubhi, a Canadian businessman, jewellery close to $200,000 (sh735m) in a fake gold deal.

State presented evidence, including forged documents with Makerere headed paper from the accused, fake gold samples, WhatsApp voice recordings, videos, photographers, and six witnesses.

Among the witnesses were Police handwriting expert who presented to court the report of matching signatures of one of the suspects. 

The suspects are charged with seven counts including forgery, uttering a false document, criminal trespass, impersonation, conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money by false pretense.

According to prosecution, the accused persons were arrested on January 10, 2018, at Makerere University while conducting fake gold tests at Physical Chemistry Laboratory.  

It is further alleged that in December 2017, the group conspired to commit a felony through obtaining money by false pretense from Soubhi while pretending to sell him 7kg of pure gold at $191,100 (sh600m).