Government has asked Nakawa High Court to order for the retrial of suspected paedophile Emin Koche Baro, who was sent to Luzira in March this year for molesting up to 50 Ugandan girls.
State Attorney Micheal Mukwana says that now the state has sufficient evidence against 54 year old Baro, who is a duo citizen of Macedonia and Australia.
Mukwana made the application to Justice Faith Mwondha after he submitted a copy of the pornographic photos to the judge and promissed to also avail court with a CD of Baro’s gross acts that will be viewed by the Judge before giving her ruling on May 8th.
The application follows a public outcry by human rights activists, on the six million shillings fine Nakawa Magistrate’s court ordered Baro to pay after he pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful possession of child pornography contrary to the Computer Misuse Act.
Mukwana told Justice Mwondha that the said sentence should be reversed because it was improper and premised on insufficient facts.
Baro’s lawyer, Paul Baingana, who had objected to tendering in of the photos but didn’t succeed, maintained that his client should be left to return to his home country since he has already paid the fine given to him.
On March 24th, Baro was arraigned before the Nakawa Grade One Magistrate Rosemary Bareebe Ngabirano, who sentenced him to two years in jail after he failed to pay a fine of 6 million shillings.
The light sentence was however reversed two days later by chief magistrate Esther Nambayo, who sent Koche’s file to the High Court for review. This followed an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions to have the case reviewed and an uproar from child rights activists who said the sentence was too light for a man suspected to have molested over 50 children.
