The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | The murder trial of Pine Car Bond proprietor Muhammad Ssebuufu resumed Thursday before the High court in Kampala with a witness identifying to court the accused as the person he saw torturing Donah Betty Katusabe in 2015.
Ssebuufu and seven other people are accused of kidnapping and torturing to death businesswoman Katusabe over failure to pay a Sh9 million debt, which was part of the expected payment after a car purchase she had made from Pine Car Bond, on October 21, 2015 along Lumumba Avenue in Kampala.
The first prosecution witness Peter Tumusiime who is a legal assistant from Tumwebaze, Atugonza and Kobusingye Company Advocates, informed court that he reached the crime scene on the fateful date, and saw Ssebuufu kicking and boxing the late Katusabe.
Tumwebaze testified that he was instructed by her boss Annet Kobusingye to follow up a matter of one of their clients Katusabe who had been reported kidnapped.
He told presiding Judge Flavia Anglin Ssenoga that he called Katusabe and she informed him that she had been kidnapped by Ssebuufu, and had been locked up in a room at Pine Car Bond along Lumumba Avenue in Kampala.
On reaching Pine, Tumusiime says he found people gathering and Ssebuufu led him to a room where he had kept Katusabe. Ssebuufu, he said, shouted that if she did not clear his balance, she would be dead by the end of the day.
He explained that he went back to his law firm and informed his boss Kobusingye, who then called the officers at Central Police Station to rescue Katusabe, but they were saddened to learn from the same police station the following day, that she had died .
Tumusiime concluded by identified Ssebuufu to court, as the person he saw torturing Donah Katusabe in 2015.
