Kasiwukira killers get new lawyer for Supreme Court appeal

Former police officer Ashiraf Jaden and Sandra Nakungu, who were convicted of the murder of Eriya Ssebunnya Bugembe, alias Kasiwukira, complained that their lawyers abandoned them and asked the government to provide them with new lawyers.

Convicts Nakungu and Jaden appealed against the 20-year sentence granted to each one of them in 2016 but after the appellant court upheld the sentence, they ran to the Supreme Court.

In 2016, High Court Judge Wilson Masalu Musene (now deceased) convicted Nakungu and Jaden for murder after prosecution proved that the two had exhibited intentions of murdering the businessman.

During the trial prosecution presented to court video footage showing that Jaden had attempted to kill Kasiwukira on two different occasions without succeeding.

Justice Musene also established that Nakungu owned the vehicle that Jaden used to knock Kasiwukira. He subsequently sentenced the duo to 20 years in Luzira Prisons for murder.

Evidenced that got Nakungu and Jayden convicted of Kasiwukira's murder revealed that the deceased was hit by a speeding car while exercising on the road in October 2014 and it was confirmed that Jaden, a former police officer, was in the car.

Kasiwukira’s widow Sarah Nabikolo escaped the murder charge after prosecution failed to prove that she was the person in the murder plot video who was only being identified as 'Madam.'

In their appeal, the two convicts argue that Justice Musene convicted them on defective charges, denied them a chance to present their witnesses thereby denying them their constitutional right and entitlement to a fair trial.

The two followed the court proceedings via video link from Luzira.

The were given a new lawyer, Andrew Ssebugwawo, who was directed to meet them in their respective prisons and then file their submissions to court as to why their sentence should be quashed for the case will be heard.