Man charged for importing illegal fishing nets
By Ruth Anderah.
A 29 year old businessman has been arraigned before Buganda Road court on charges of importing illegal fishing nets into the country.
Banuri Byakika was arrested on November 24th 2018 from Hamu village in Makerere Kampala city by the Fisheries protection Force which had got intelligence information that he was going to supply the illegal nets to various landing sites.
Byakika first denied the charge of being in possession of fishing nets which do not conform to the compulsory standards and he hasbeen on remand at Luzira prison since November last year.
However today as the case came up for hearing before Grade one magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu, Byakika opted to change to a plea of guilty after seeing fisheries authorities in court ready to testify against him.
He had also accepted to pay a court fine of 40 million shillings but magistrate Kamsanyu rejected his plea -bargain agreement because she was not involved in the negotiations.
She has now sent Byakika back on remand until Friday this week so that the state and his lawyers follow the appropriate procedure to plea-bargain.
