Edison Mwesigye, a police officer attached to Bwambara Police post in Rukungiri District has been sentenced to four years in Prison by the local High Court for shooting dead a crime suspect 2014.
Prosecution led by The Rukungiri State Attorney Aminah Nakasa told court that in 2014, Mwesigye, armed with an AK 47 and in the company of another person still at large, went to arrest Emanuel Kabarebe, but when he resisted arrest, he shot him dead.
Mwesigye pleaded not guilty to murder, saying he shot the deceased accidentally when a thread from his sweater pulled the trigger.
After his plea the murder charge was reduced to manslaughter.
State attorney Nakasa had asked for a harsher sentence for the convict, citing the growing number of lives lost at the hands of government security agents.
In his ruling, Justice Moses Kawumi Kazibwe said that the state prosecution and the collaborated testimonies of eye witnesses showed that the accused person committed the offence, thereby sentencing him to four years in prison.
Considering the three years he has been on remand, the convict will now serve one year at the Rukungiri Government Prison.