he High Court in Kampala has on Monday dismissed claims raised by the key Suspect Comporiyamu Kasolo during the hearing of the Maria Nagirinya and Ronald Kitayimbwa murder case that happened in 2019.
Soon after the murder, police picked up several suspects including Raymond Marcos Okori, Isaac Ssenabulya alias Kisunsu, Hamza Kateregga alias Arsenal, John Kisekka alias Manumanu, John Lubega aka Barros, Hasan Kisekka, and Ivan Mutagubya.
On Thursday last week when the prosecution side led by state attorney Jonathan Muwaganya and Timothy Emeriti brought police detective Winfred Nakatudde as the 15th witness, Kasolo raised a complaint telling the court that she was one of the security officers who tortured him in custody and made him sign documents without his consent.
This halted Nakatudde’s testimonycourt called for a trial within a trial. Kasolo took the stand and told stated that he was tortured by security officials, Nakatudde inclusive.
Judge Muwata said that Kasolo did not directly challenge the evidence and it’s possible that he was not tortured.
He ruled that Kasolo has not proven claims of torture to the standard required and he dismissed the claims.
Judge Muwata added that the statement recorded from Kasolo was according to the law and procedure and shall be admitted as evidence.
Relatives of the victims broke into tears when Nakatudde a police detective was reading Kasolo’s statement to the court as evidence of how they killed the victims.
She stated that Kasolo got the deal of robbing Nagirinya from two men Doleya Oteo and Yona Kabango in 2013 when he was in Luzira prisons on charges of theft.
The two men told Kasolo that they have a deal they want him to participate in and it would happen as soon as he is released from prison.
She went to tell court that the men told Kasolo of a certain woman driving Spacio UBA 570V that she moves with money ranging from 40 to 50 million daily because she was dealing in the trade of beans from Busia and working with an organization.
Kasolo came to understand there was another inmate Hamza Kateregga who knew about the same deal.
Kateregga was released from prison a week before Kasolo and later Kasolo was also released in July 2019.
Kasolo alias Arsenal met Kateregga in Nateete and they realized that they both grew up in the same area.
Kateregga knew Nagirinya’s area of residence and her description as told by the two men who sold them the deal while in prison.
Kasolo mobilized Rasta Manomano and Isaac Ssenabulya lias Kisunsu and one Fred to help them work out the deal.
To execute the deal, they had to have motorcycles and Manomano brought Muwonge Nasif who had one and Mowonge also brought Shafik with another bike.
The day before the Kidnap Kasolo trailed Nagirinya up to the gate at Lungujja to confirm that she was the exact woman they wanted to rob.
The following day Kasolo made an AK47 toy gun and a pistol and bought two machetes from hardware in Nateete which they used to kidnap the victims in Lungujja.
After the kidnapping of Nagirinya and Kitayimbwa Kasolo who was the driver drove around the city to find a bush where they could dump the victims.
Kasolo drove up to Lubowa on Entebbe road and failed to find any bush where they can drop the victims when alive because their motive was not to kill them but to rob them of the money.
Kasolo remembered a bush in Mukono where he decided to drive them. He again remembered that Yona Kabango who gave them the deal told him that the woman should not see any of their faces.
When he realized that the victims had seen them their motives changed and they decided to kill them.
Kasolo who represented himself in this case tasked detective Nakatudde to tell the court the exact date when he committed the offence.
He also required to be told the exact number plate and the names of the woman they had planned to rob as stated in the statement.
Hearing of the case is continuing tomorrow as more witnesses from the prosecution side are expected to appear.
