Lira police has dropped murder charges against James Odongo, a resident of Kichope village who was arrested in connection to the death of a Swiss woman. Police has instead opened fresh charges of rush and negligence against the suspect under CRB 1668/2012. Odongo was picked up on June 04 following the mysterious death of 60-year-old Doris Tschan.
The deceased relocated to Uganda in on 23, December 2011 and settled in Kichope village with the suspect. Tschan, was however found dead recently under unclear circumstances forcing to police to arrest Odongo for murder. But Bernard Agwer, Lira district deputy Criminal Investigations Officer says that they have dropped the murder charges against the suspects. He says that they have instead charged him with the withholding charge of Rush and Negligence leading to the death of the deceased.
Agwer says that preliminary police findings show that the Odongo used to lock the deceased inside the house when she became ill instead of taking her to hospital for treatment. Odongo was reportedly living with the deceased as her boyfriend. Tschan’s body is still at Mulago hospital in Kampala pending the release of a postmortem report.
Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs was quoted by foreign media saying that the Swiss Embassy in Nairobi and the Honorary Consulate in Kampala are in close contact with the Ugandan police to establish the cause of her death.
