Four people, who were recently found guilty of robbing and murdering two South Sudanese businessmen at a hotel in Arua Park in Kampala, have been sentenced to life imprisonment, Uganda’s The Monitor newspaper reports.

Presiding judge Stephen Mubiru justified the life punishment on grounds that they were found guilty as accessories to the crime and not direct perpetrators who would have deserved the maximum punishment of death by hanging.

“The direct perpetrator Nelson Oribitunga, a former security guard working with Saracen Private Security Company, survived the death penalty because he pleaded guilty and the next punishment is life imprisonment where the convict pauses a danger to society or if the court finds that the offender will not be rehabilitated,” the judge ruled.

Those sentenced are Innocent Gumisiriza, a driver, Jacob Chethembo, Dues Kanyomozi, Daniel Namara, and Badul Karim Kabano.

The judge also sentenced Nicholas Mugisha, 23, a former cleaner at the hotel, who provided the hotel room key to the assailants, to 27 years in prison.

“I find that a sentence of life imprisonment is harsh at your age at the time of committing the crime and that you were the least offender. The sentencing guidelines provide for a sentence of 35 years in jail, but there was the loss of two lives, cash, and attempted to cause the death of another,” Justice Mubiru ruled.

He added: “…I find that a sentence of 40 years as the most appropriate. But I have considered the mitigation factors and responsibility, to 32 years. I have to deduct the time spent on remand and therefore, in respect of the counts of murder and aggravated robbery, you will serve 27 years and 3 months.”

The judge also explained that each of the convicts was sentenced depending on the role they played in the murder.

Justice Mubiru further told the convicts that all their sentences will run concurrently and that they have a right to appeal both their sentences and convict within 14 days.

The group was on May 9 found guilty of aiding Oribitunga to shoot dead Ibrahim Bakhit, the Juba City Hotel Manager, and his brother Abdallah Muhammad after which they robbed  $3,400 (about Shs12m) from the said hotel.

The judge noted that the deceased were brutally killed as Muhammed was shot in the head.

He further noted that there were multiple shots at Bhakit.

“Whoever does the shooting multiple times on sensitive body parts is always targeting and intending to kill,” Justice Mubiru observed.

The prosecution contends that on 15 August 2018 at around Arua Park, Ben Kiwanuka Street in Kampala, the accused who have now been sentenced, robbed Shs 1,865,000 and $3,400 (about Shs12m) and before or after the said robbery used a pistol to kill Mohammed Abdallah and Ibrahim Bakhit.