Mother of seven, jailed for defying curfew released
The High Court in Kampala has released 20 people including Lillian Aciro, a mother of seven who were arrested and jailed for defying the presidential directive on curfew.
The group was last month convicted by the Buganda Road Magistrates court on their own plea of guilty and sentenced to three months imprisonment.
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However, the Women Probono Initiative wrote to the High Court citing irregularities in the proceedings and asked for a criminal review.
On Friday, the head of the criminal division of the High Court, Justice Wilson Kwesiga ruled reasoned that there were irregularities that necessitated the immediate release of the group.
“”In view of the above suffice to rule that the learned magistrate procedurally erred when she failed to follow the settled rules of procedure or recording pleas of guilty laid down,” Justice Kwesiga ruled.
“The irregularities caused a miscarriage of justice and illegal conviction and sentences.”
According to the High Court judge, the irregularities by the lower court led to miscarriage of justice that cannot be allowed to continue and consequently, the convicts released.
“Therefore, the conviction of each applicant is hereby quashed and the sentence set aside. Each of the applicant’s liberty shall immediately be restored,” he ruled.
Lillian Aciro
Early this month, the Nile Post reported that seven children were struggling to get what to eat after their mother had been sent to Kigo prison after arrested for defying curfew.
Fifteen-year-old Suzan Akello, the eldest of the seven was now trying to fend for his six siblings in a dilapidated house in Namuwongo after their mother, Lillian Aciro ,the sole bread winner had been sent to jail.
"He did not sleep all the night as he cried demanding for food which I did not have” a tearful Akello said of her youngest brother.
According to Akello, their father, John Okello got crippled in an accident three years back and was taken back to Gulu leaving their mother as the sole bread winner for the family of eight.
https://nilepost.co.ug/2020/05/14/seven-children-go-hungry-as-mother-rots-in-kigo-prison/
