CAPTAIN SPENDS 12 YEARS ON REMAND, SENTENCED TO ONE YEAR FOR TREASON

By Juliet Kigongo

Kampala. The General Court Martial at Makindye has sentenced a retired captain to one year in prison for treason.

Amon Byarugaba has been on remand for 12 years. He was arrested in 2003 with 22 others in Ituri Forest in DR Congo. “The convict is a first offender who committed a grave offence of treason since it is intended to overthrow the government and it carries a death sentence. However, the death sentence is not mandatory,” the chairman of the General Court Martial, Maj Gen Levi Karuhanga, ruled yesterday.

“Court will consider the 12 years spent on remand and since he is of advanced age, he is sentenced to one year imprisonment and has a right to appeal in 14 days,” he added.

The other suspects with whom Byarugaba was arrested were granted amnesty and released.

Maj Gen Karuhanga also noted that Byarugaba did not express any sign of remorse during the trial. 
While convicting him last month, Maj Gen Karuhanga said three prosecution witnesses had corroborative evidence pinning the retired captain on subversive activities to overthrow the government by use of guns.

“Two of the witnesses told court how they had joined People’s Redemption Army in 2001 after receiving calls from one of the group’s leaders, a one Capt [Samson] Mande and joined a training camp in Rwanda,” Maj Gen Karuhanga said. The military court noted that the decision by the convict to keep quiet as part of his defence without explanation given for his arrest in DR Congo proved he was guilty of treason.

Maj Gen Karuhanga said two of the witnesses told court how they had been sent by the State to spy on the PRA rebel group and its plot to overthrow government and among the people they found in the training camps was Byarugaba.

“The accused’s presence in DR Congo is not capable of any explanation upon any other reasonable hypothesis than that he was on a mission to overthrow the government of Uganda. Therefore in the result we find Capt Byarugaba guilty of the offence of treason and accordingly convict
him,” the court chairman ruled.

CREDIT: DAILY MONITOR