The Court of Appeal has upheld a 50-year jail sentence that was handed to a man convicted of murdering his brother.
On January 14, 2014, Justice Rugadya Atwooki found Mr. Sperito Ssemaganda guilty of murdering his brother Lozio Kayizzi and ordered him to spend 50 years in prison.
Unhappy with said decision, he challenged the conviction and his sentence, saying the trial judge failed to properly evaluate the evidence before convicting him and that the sentence was harsh.
However, three justices led by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera have ruled that his appeal lacked merits and upheld both his conviction and sentence.
“From the record, the accused persons not only stabbed the victim resulting in the intestines coming out of his body but went ahead to cut the said intestines which is ruthless in the extreme,” Justice Buteera ruled.
They further ruled that the trial Judge did not fault any sentencing principles and ordered Ssemaganda to serve his jail term.
Ssemaganda and another were indicted for murder, tried and convicted by the High Court sitting inLuweero, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. According to court documents, on March 28, 2011, while at Maya village in Luwero district, with malice aforethought, the duo murdered Lozio Kayizzi.
Prosecution states that Kayizzi went missing when he spent the night away from his home before search was launched on March 28, 2011.
It is said that the deceased’s family members observed a pool of blood on the roadside, about 100 metres from their home, and followed the trail. it is alleged that they discovered Kayizzi’s body about 7 metres from the road.
Later that morning, a traditional healer reported to police that two men (appellants) were in his shrine for spiritual cleansing having killed a one Kayizzi Lozio, who had been ‘bewitching them’.
Police arrested the duo from the shrine and charged them with murder.
