Writes Leo Odera Omolo
TEDDY Sezi Cheeye yesterday started serving his 10-year jail term for stealing Global Fund money meant for HIV/AIDS after the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal,the government owned NEWVISION reported this morning.
Cheeye being escorted by a Police officer to the cells of the Court of Appeal
The court said the sentence was too small because his offence was very serious. “The conviction and sentences of the lower court are upheld. He should proceed to serve his sentence,” the judges ruled.
Ironically, the smartly dressed Cheeye had turned up at the Court of Appeal to apply for extension of his bail, only to be told by a clerk that the ruling was to be delivered.
“I am surprised, I had come to extend my bail,” Cheeye told journalists minutes before the ruling.
Cheeye, former head of economic monitoring in the President’s office, last year got bail from the Court of Appeal, which he had asked to overturn the sentence.
In addition to imprisonment, Cheeye is also to refund sh110m of the sh120m he got from the fund. The High Court convicted Cheeye in April 2009 for embezzling the money and forging accountability for it.
The money came his way through his NGO, the Uganda Centre for Accountability, for purportedly monitoring AIDS activities in Rakai, Kabale, Mbarara and Ntungamo districts.
The money was deposited on the account to which Cheeye was sole signatory and he withdrew all of it in 19 days although he did not monitor any AIDS activities anywhere.
Cheeye’s accountant, Geoffrey Nkurunziza, told the court during the trial that Cheeye instructed him to forge accountability. In one case, Cheeye said he used a caterpillar loader, which uses diesel, to transport people.
Convicting Cheeye, Justice John Bosco Katutsi said: “This type of crime is being committed with impunity! That a caterpillar wheelloader, which uses diesel, this time was using petrol! Is this stupidity or impunity?”
Giving their verdict yesterday, judges of the appeal court, Amos Twinomujuni, Steven Kavuma and Augustine Nshimye Sebuturo, said although Cheeye was a first offender, he was a senior public officer responsible for fighting corruption and should have been the “last person to engage in the criminal activities he was convicted of”.
“He should have led by example. We think the sentences of 10 years and three years were on the lower side. We are content, however, to leave the matter as the learned trial judge, in his wisdom, found suitable. We also uphold the order for compensation,” the judges added.
After the ruling was read, a Police officer swiftly moved to take Cheeye to the cells, but the shocked convict dashed towards his lawyer, Peter Kabatsi, asking if they should appeal. “I think we should,” the lawyer remarked as the policeman grabbed Cheeye en route to Luzira.
Kabatsi said he had not had formal instructions from Cheeye to appeal yet.
Cheeye had told the Court of Appeal that justice Katutsi was wrong to say he received the sh120m because he relied on uncorroborated evidence of Nkurunziza, whom he described as an accomplice and a liar.
Cheeye also said he did not forge the accounts and that the judgement was too harsh.
In total, Cheeye’s imprisonment term is 28 years, but the High Court ordered that he serves them concurrently, for just 10 years.
The appeal judges said Cheeye was given chance to defend himself, but he declined to talk.
The anti-corruption court has convicted four people over the Global Fund. Former director of programmes in Uganda Television Salongo Scoff Kavuma got five years and is to refund sh41m he embezzled. Annaliza Mondon and Elizabeth Ngororano also earned five years imprisonment and are to refund sh30m of the sh38m they received through their NGO, Value Health.
Ends