Police officer given 4 years in prison for killing suspect

A police officer attached to Bwambara Police post in Rukungiri District has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for shooting dead a suspect.
High Court judge Moses Kawumi Kazibwe convicted Edison Mwesigye after prosecution proved that he shot dead Emanuel Kabarebe in 2014.

The State Attorney Ms Aminah Nakasa told court Mr Mwesigye armed with an AK 47, in the company of another person still at large, went to the scene to arrest the suspect (now deceased) and they shot him as he resisted and fought them.
In defence, Mr Mwesigye told court that he shot at the deceased accidentally. He told court that a thread from his sweater pulled the trigger of his gun thereby releasing a bullet which killed Kabarebe.
“The death was purely accidental,” he said.
Following his plea, Mwesigye had his murder charges reduced to manslaughter.

Ms Nakasa had however, told the judge that Mr Mwesigye deserves a harsher punishment for the offence.
“Such sentence would restrain other security operatives with a similar intension of killing innocent people,” she said.
In his ruling, Justice Kazibwe said, “The state prosecution and the collaborated testimonies of eye witnesses show that the accused person committed the offence and I hereby sentence him to four years including the three years he has been on remand.”
Mr Mwesigye will spend the one year at Rukungiri government prison.