Court orders deportation of seven Chinese nationals

Jul 19, 2020

In her ruling, the learned magistrate stated that deporting the convicts was necessary for they are perpetual offenders.

COURT CRIME

Seven of the 37 Chinese nationals convicted on several charges including phone tapping are to be deported back to China, immediately after borders re-open.

Grade One Magistrate, Marion Mangeni of the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates' Court in Kampala issued the order on Thursday as she was sentencing the group, having been convicted for illegal stay in Uganda.

Those to be deported are You Jing Dao 50, Lia Xiao Feng 30, Chen Xiao Kang 30, Chen Jun 29, Yu Wen Jie 19, Lin Yi Ming 50, Lin Shao Sheng 54 and Li Jia Zhao 28.

In her ruling, the learned Magistrate stated that deporting the convicts was necessary for they are perpetual offenders.

"Considering the plea bargain agreement, I hereby order Dao, Feng, Kang, Jun, Ming, Zhao, and Sheng to be deported back to China at their own cost immediately the boarders re-open," Mangeni ruled.

Prior, all the 37 convicts were sentenced to a fine of over sh200m or to serve one, three and five years' imprisonment on default. This was after they reached a plea bargain agreement with the state regarding the 17 counts against them.

Upon succeeding with the plea bargain, the defence counsel, Jamil Mujurizi informed the court that all the accused opted to change plea, prompting court re-read the charges.

Part of the exhibits being arraigned in court by police detectives (Photo by Douglas Mubiru)
Part of the exhibits being arraigned in court by police detectives (Photo by Douglas Mubiru)



Re-reading the offences,  all the 37 accused pleaded guilty to charges of phone tapping, possession of smuggled and stolen goods, unlawful presence within Uganda, employment without an entry permit, illegal possession of protected species, and utilisation of wildlife.

It is on this background that the court convicted the group and sentenced them to a fine of over sh200m, accordingly and several exhibits were forfeited to the state.

Exhibits

Police detectives led by Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police, Maliserino Mulema arraigned several exhibits in court that the convicts used during the commission of the crimes.

These included 2,703 Redmi, Samsung and iPhone mobile phones, 45 laptops, 1, 898 Airtel and 223MTN Simcards, 120 telephone motherboards, 5 boxes of phone, and laptop fibers, gold mining chips and 200 Chinese cigarette bombers.

Others were phone and laptop chips, 12 grilling machines, 2 boxes of food ingredients, 1 stolen water, and UMEME meter and 2 food-processing machines.

The six live tortoises, pangolin scales, and ten pieces of dried bull elephant penises were handed over to Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) executive director for further management.

The charge

The prosecution led by Ivan Kyazze said between October last year and March 2020, at Kireka, Kamuli Road, the accused and others still at large accessed information unscrupulously when they facilitated the commission of the offence of unauthorised use of computer services knowingly and unlawfully accessed 1,895 Airtel SIM cards without authority for the purpose of obtaining directly or indirectly Airtel telecom services.

The convicts also accessed 223 MTN SIM cards without authority and intercepted calls in Uganda on the MTN network.

The convicts were also found in possession of six tortoises valued at over sh22.8m, without a permit and utilized the latter as pets without a wildlife use right.

The convicts illegally possessed 2, 703 Redmi mobile phones made in China under several International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers and sept wolves, huanghelou, ligun and yuxi cigarettes, all from China and reasonably suspected to have been smuggled into Uganda in such large quantities without license and clearance from customs.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});