Staff
The Mwanga II Court Magistrate, Adams Byarugaba, was quick to trash delay tactics deployed by the defense team in the case involving nine youths charged with blackmailing Pastor Robert Kayanja.
It should be recalled that during the last court session, both the State Attorney and the Defense team agreed to have an expert extract information off suspect Reagan Ssentongo’s phone before he testifies.
Magistrate Byarugaba noted: “First, I need to know the person or the company, and communicate to him or the organization. So let counsel for the accused write to Court, disclosing what they want to be extracted and the expert, and the Court will formally write to the expert and also hand over the gadget, and the process commences. So that by December 11th, the report will be in, but the earlier the better.”
The expert, who will then be a witness, will have to show us how he extracted the said information without the help of the suspect. So, this idea of guiding the expert is out of the window.
This followed a request from State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya that the expert should not be biased by any party, stating, “Because the expert is coming to interview the gadget, not the person, so we don’t have to be present.”
“Any process where an interested party sat down with the expert to determine what to extract will be fraudulent. What they have to do is to write down everything they want from the phone and the expert does his job independently. Then he will come here to tell Court how he or she extracted the said information.”
The State Attorney added: “Your honor, I want to go on record that I don’t want to be present at the process of getting that data. And I don’t find it fit for a layman (Ssentongo) to guide the expert. Then why does he wear the hat of an expert?”
With time passing by, the plot, orchestrated by Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga of Christian Life Church in Bwaise, is crumbling like a pack of cards as the arrested youths’ testimonies unfold.
The Magistrate curtailed the latest attempt to waste the Court’s time, as the defense team claimed the expert was busy and thus could not appear this morning.
Why are the defense lawyers hell-bent on using what they claim is on Ssentongo’s phone? Why didn’t they submit the evidence to police as they recorded statements and why didn’t they ask Pastor Kayanja to that effect when he appeared as a witness and was cross examined? And why continued delays with numerous requests for adjournments?
Ssentongo, a witness currently on the stand whose testimony was halted, was also following the same script as his co-accused: Sserugo, Labib Khalifa, Alex Wakamala, and Martin Kagolo.
They are all accused of fabricating evidence, giving false information to the police, and criminal trespassing at Pastor Robert Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral.
In his defense, Ssentongo alleged that he joined the Kayanja team in 2017 at the age of 13 and was sent for security training at the police school in Masindi for six months at the age of 14.
One naturally wonders if the Uganda Police Force would actually train a minor. However, documents he signed before the training, along with fingerprints, show that at the time of training, he was 19 years old.
It should also be recalled that back in 2022, the witness Reagan Ssentongo and co-accused Khalifa Labib were sentenced to six years for aggravated robbery and assault crimes and are currently pushing for bail at Masindi High Court in front of Judge Issa Sserunkuuma.
The two former workers at Pastor Robert Kayanja’s farm in Kiryandongo, who turned into his tormentors, were found guilty of robbery and assault. It is said that they attacked Mr. Patrick Turyatemba at his home in Kigumba, beat him up, and sprayed him with pepper.
The accused persons were arrested and found in possession of pepper spray in their room following the incident that happened on April 25th, 2020, and Chief Magistrate, Her Worship Lucy Kabahuma, gave them a punishment equivalent to six years, including the one year they had spent on remand.
