After several attempts, High Court Justice Lawrence Gidudu has finally granted SK Mbuga’s wife, Vivienne Chebet Mbuga bail.
Chebet, who was sent to Luzira Prison on March 1, 2019, was on Wednesday able to secure a cash bail of Shs20 million.
In his ruling, Gidudu claimed that Sweden is a non member of the Commonwealth, thus there seems to be no legal provisions to provide for the extradition of Chebet to Sweden for trail.
However, he stated that Chebet should not try to escape, for there is a Red Notice put on her by International Police.
“If she tries under a pseudo name her fingerprints will blow her cover. This means she is permanently confined to Uganda until the Red Notice is withdrawn,” Gidudu stated.
The Anti-Corruption Court remanded Chebet to Luzira Prison for obtaining money under false pretense through fake gold deals.
According to Prosecution, Chebet on April 13, 2015 obtained 53 million Krone (about Shs20.9 billion) under false pretense from her former Swedish boyfriend Heinsoo Sten in a fake gold deal.
Chebet was also charged with money laundering, for allegedly soliciting and sending the extorted money to her Barclays Bank account in Uganda.
Prosecution alleged that on April 7, 2015 Chebet obtained Shs152.8 million on her Barclays Bank account from Sten knowing at the time of receipt, the funds were proceeds of crime.
It was alleged that after committing these crimes, Chebet fleeced Sweden back to Uganda till when police arrested her at Kibuli, Criminal Investigation office on February 14, 2019.
But being that the alleged crimes were not committed in Uganda, the Swedish government requested that Chebet should be extradited to Sweden to be tried and charged for her crimes, but Justice Gidudu stated that Uganda and Sweden don’t have extradition policy.
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