By Curthbert Kigozi
Peter Mayanja a 23yr old was arrested on 15th march 2017 by the Aviation police and charged with Trafficking in Psychotropic substance contrary to section 5 of the Narcotic drug and Psychotropic substance act.
The then clearing agent at a non disclosed organization failed to pay 2million shillings to bail him out where he was convicted and sentenced to 10yrs in jail something the high court under Justice Nyanzi Yasin quashed on may 16th .
‘’Police and other authorizes in Entebbe and specifically the court in Entebbe have repeatedly enforced the law and it’s high time they are notified that dealing in khat is not yet prohibited by law in Uganda.’’, said Justice Nyanzi.
To a tearful Mayanja who had so far served 17 months to his sentence, claims that he was unlawful convicted and also sensed corruption behind the scenes of his ruling.
‘’In my case, the client was available but he was convicted and I was. So you find out that, there is a lot of unfairness in the courts of law and police and corruption in Uganda which I don’t know how we shall overcome It.’’, Peter recounts on his ordeal.
His lawyer Isaac Semakadde highlighted more on how Peter has not been the only one convicted in such a scenario giving an example Casper Peterson a Danish international who was charged with Trafficking in Psychotropic substance but later his proceedings were quashed by the high court in November last year.
However, Peter says, he will go back and explain to his former boss of how he was arrested unlawfully to see if he would regain his job.
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