Mukono Chief Magistrate Judge Juliet Hatanga has ordered for the arrest of Rtd. Maj. Gen. Matayo Kyaligonza and his body guards.
Gen Kyaligonza who is Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi alongside Cpl Peter Busindiche and Pte John Okurut are accused of assaulting a female traffic police officer Esther Namaganda on February 24 this year in Seeta, Mukono District.
Following the incident, the two officers (bodyguards) were arrested and paraded before an internal UPDF disciplinary court.
The magistrate ordered that the ex-serviceman with the co-accused; be arrested and taken to court on June 10, 2019 to plead to the charges after they repeatedly defied court summons.
Kyaligonza’s lawyers David Balondemu, Evans Ochieng and Caleb Alaka claimed that their client is being tried in two courts (Mukono court and the General Court Martial) at the same time and cannot attend all the concurrent proceedings, but court dismissed their submissions.
“Your worship, on April 16, 2019, the state attorney for UPDF instituted proceedings against the accused persons in the Court Martial on the same facts similar to those before you. Since they can be convicted and sentenced by both courts, we pray that this court terminates these proceedings because they are charged in Court Martial. That’s why all of them have not appeared in this court,” said Alaka.
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