High Court Judge Justice Wilson Masalu Musene has set the 19th of April to pronounce his ruling on an appeal filed by former SC Villa Coach Christopher Mubiru Kasingiri, challenging both the sentence and conviction handed to him at the Buganda Road Court in September 2015.
The court’s Chief Magistrate Flavia Nabakooza on 18th September 2015 sentenced Mubiru to ten years imprisonment after convicting him of an offence of having carnal knowledge against order of nature with a 17 year old Emmanuel Nyanzi in 2009.
In his appeal submitted in court by his lawyer Brian Serunjogi, Mubiru says the trial magistrate erred when she convicted him on this offence yet there was no clear evidence brought in court to show that there was a sexual intercourse that happened between the appellant and the victim.
“On Page 4 of the records and proceedings, the chief magistrate said that there was no direct evidence of a sexual act between the two and it was this evidence that was to be used as a spring board on which other evidence was to be based,” submitted Serunjogi.
The lawyer added that there was no evidence to support claims of penetrative sex, yet the law points it out that in all cases of unlawful carnal knowledge, there must be evidence of penetration.
“The trial chief magistrate erred when she only based on the evidence of Prosecution witnesses’ testimony. One of the witnesses had in fact been discredited by court while the victim himself Emmanuel Nyanzi was unreliable since he had told court lies on various occasions.”
Serunjogi noted that Nyazi first lied to court that he was 17years by the time of the incident, only to adjust later and claim he was 19.
“He also told court that his father had chased him from home; after being sodomized but when he
came to court later he said his parents were dead at the time, which is a very big contradiction,” he added.
Mubiru also challenged the 10 years sentence, noting that the magistrate didn’t consider the age factor in the sentencing guidelines since he is above 50 years.
In reply to these submissions, State Attorney Ann Kabajungu clarified that this case was not a defilement case where age is considered a lot, but was all about proving that the applicant engaged in the act of having carnal knowledge against order of nature which was proved. She added that the victim’s contradiction on age was not a big deal.
Kabujungu said that the 10 years imprisonment and the 50million shillings compensation to the victim was not too harsh as alleged by the applicant, noting that these were well below the maximum sentence for the offence.