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By:
Fred Muzaale | |||||||||
| Posted:
May,27-2022 09:22:32
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High Court in Mukono has sentenced a 45-year-old witchdoctor to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of murder and aggravated human trafficking.
Justice Margret Mutonyi delivered the verdict on Mohammed Wamala who court says killed Zulaika Mirembe in a ritual murder aimed at trafficking humans to the shrine of his brother-in-law, Wilber Ssebuyungo, in Kisoga Village, Nazigo Sub County in Kayunga District.
Ssebuyungo, 31, was in 2019 also sentenced by the same court to a 30 year-imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the charges of murdering five people.
However, Wamala, then, denied charges. Police and military intelligence operatives in 2018 arrested the witch doctor and recovered five human bodies from their shrine in Kisoga Village, Nazigo Sub-county, Kayunga District.
Although Wamala is a resident of Nansana in Nansana municipality, he committed the crime in Kisoga village.
At the crime scene, investigators discovered two bodies of male adults buried in one grave, while three others were buried in separate graves.
The entire shrine where the graves were found had been cemented before detectives and residents dug through concrete to recover the bodies.
According to court documents, each body was buried with a Shs5, 000 note. Police also recovered spears and pots containing human blood collected from the bodies.
Court heard that “in 2017 at Kisoga Village, Wamala with malice and forethought- murdered Nansamba by hitting her head with a pickaxe.”
Victims sliced
Prosecution relied on a post-mortem report by Mulago National Referral Hospital pathologist Dr Sam Kalungi that the deceased had a cracked head indicating that she succumbed to blunt trauma.
In her judgment, Justice Mutonyi, said that Wamala’s in-law Wilber Ssebuyungo who pleaded guilty to the same offenses in 2019 in exchange for a lighter sentence, also implicated him on the murder charges when he testified as a prosecution witness.
In his testimony, Ssebuyungo told the court that Wamala and his employee, Jamilu Kimbugwe, who is still at large, cut the deceased into two.
The defense lawyer told court that although it was Wamala who trained Ssebuyungo in herbal medicine he was not the one who trained him human sacrificing.
While handing Wamala the life sentence, Justice Mutonyi, said: “Although his lawyer wanted him handed a 16-year jail sentence, there was need to hand the convict a deterrent sentence.”
“This case has exposed inhumane and wicked acts that go on in shrines. There is need to enact a law that would spell out clearly how herbal medicine should be administered.
She added: “Wamala said he was indoctrinated by his father who was a witch doctor into becoming a witch doctor. I wonder how many people were killed and buried in the shrine of Wamala’s father.”
The justice wondered why Wamala seemed composed and maintained a straight look at the judge during the ruling while his relatives were reduced to tears.
“Given that one of the victims, Mirembe, was lured by a police officer to the shrine where she was killed puts a big challenge against fighting human sacrifice,” Ms Mutonyi observed.
An executive director of a local NGO taking care of Mirembe’s child welcomed the ruling.
“I was personally involved in the arrest of the suspects and I want to applaud police, the judge and court system for ensuring prosecution of the suspects,” Mr Sewakiryanga said.
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Source:
The Monitor
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