Documento - UGANDA. Pena de muerte | Amnesty International

Documento - UGANDA. Pena de muerte

PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 59/001/2006

06 January 2006

UA 05/06 Death penalty

UGANDA Joel Lubangakene (m), soldier

Private Joel Lubangakene was sentenced to death by hanging by a military court on 2 January, for reportedly shooting dead an 18-year-old student on 26 December in northern Uganda. Some reports indicate that Lubangakene could be executed on 8 January. President Museveni has the power to commute the sentence.

Lubangakene reportedly claimed he had shot the student, 18-year-old Ojok Ojara, on the orders of his commanding officer, which he could not disobey. However, the court apparently agreed with the prosecutor that soldiers were only bound to obey lawful orders, while this order would have been unlawful; and also that Lubangakene had been lying, as he had not been ordered to shoot Ojara, but had done so "maliciously".

The hearing, before an 11-member court, took place inside the Lalogi internally displaced people’s camp, where Ojara was reportedly shot.

The Lalogi camp is home to some 300,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which has been operating in the region since the mid-1980s.