MASAKA .
The Court of Appeal has completed the hearing and determining of criminal appeals at Masaka High Court.
The session flagged off by the deputy chief justice designate, justice Flavian Zeija had 27 criminal appeals to review focusing on long pending appeals some dating back to 2011.
The three-day session, presided over by justices Hellen Obura, Christopher Gashirabake, and Eva K Luswata, included appeals related to aggravated defilement 20, rape (3), aggravated robbery and attempted murder (1), aggravated robbery and murder (1), and murder (2).
The justices delivered decisions in 18 appeals, and reserved judgments in five appeals, which they will deliver on notice, and four appeals were dismissed.
Among the appeals dismissed include; those where the appellants agreed with their counsel Muhammad Mbalire, to withdraw their cases.
The justices set aside rulings in 13 appeals, resentencing the appellants afresh. Some of the grounds the presiding justices relied on to overturn the rulings in the appealed cases included the presiding judges not considering the time spent on remand by the appellants, thereby the judges misapplying sentencing guidelines.
One of the reviewed cases include that of a 50-year-old Geoffrey Rwishosha who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 for defiling a 14-year-old daughter .
The justices ruled that the appellant’s lawyer had failed to present strong mitigating factors which made the presiding judge to sentence him to life imprisonment which was set aside and resentenced afresh giving him 40years imprisonment and after deducting 4 years, the time he had spent on remand. He will now serve 36 years from the year he was convicted.
The justices on the other hand, maintained sentences, in 5 appeals citing lack of merit in the cases of the appellants.
They maintained sentence includes a life imprisonment for Patrick Kagwa convicted and sentenced to spending his natural life in prison for repeatedly defiling his biological twin daughter who was suffering from Tuberculosis.
Kagwa was convicted for aggravated defilement by Justice Margret Oumo Oguli on February 11, 2015, sentencing him to spend his natural life in prison.
In their ruling the justices agreed with the respondents, that the trial judge gave attention to the mitigating factors, before handing the appellant the sentence of life imprisonment which he moved to overturn in his appeal application notice.
The justices noted that they also looked at the fact that, the appellant, is the biological father, who could strangle his daughter during the sexual abuse, instead of protecting her given her health condition, and the victim died a week after making the report of the repeated defilement incidences.
“The maximum sentence is death, so really sentencing you to spending your natural life in prison, was not harsh, in circumstances of this case, we find the sentence commensurate and we are unable to interfere with the sentence, we therefore find no merit in your appeal and you will serve the sentence given to you, so we order” the justices ordered.
The resident judge justice Lawrence Tweyanze applauded the Court of Appeal justices for the speed they exhibited in completing the appeals in a limited period of time.
Justice Eva K Luswata, in her closing remarks of the session, asked the defense lawyers to always develop a good rapport with the stakeholders, in the Justice ,Law and Order Sector so that they can have access to their clients in time in respective prisons where they are held, so that they can make their submissions on time.
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