The State, through criminal investigations agencies, was blamed on Monday, June 12, for its role in jailing an innocent man and his sister for four years.
At the Court of Appeal, the prosecutor, while urging the judge to throw away the case, argued that the investigating authorities erred when collecting evidence on the forgery case.
The duo had been accused of forging their grandmother’s Will, after she died on March 6, 2004, and illegally inheriting her prime property.
While being sentenced, the court found the two guilty of forging the document, purporting to be drafted by their grandmother on April 28, 2000.
His lawyer demanded the Directorate of Criminal Investigations be held accountable for the flawed investigations.
In 2020, the High Court stated that it was satisfied with the Magistrate Court’s decision that found the two guilty of plotting to disinherit their uncle, who sued them.
“In view of the direct and circumstantial evidence above, I find that the prosecution proved the offences of forgery against the appellants beyond any reasonable doubt,” the High Court ruling dictated.
Their uncle had argued that the grandmother was ailing when the Will was supposed to have been signed and could not have approved such a document.
The Judge, in agreement, noted that the two siblings hatched a well-choreographed plot to lock their uncle out of the inheritance.
In his affidavit, the uncle also claimed that he was bedridden at that time, after contracting spinal tuberculosis.
However, the Court of Appeal found the accused not guilty and released the man three years after his jail term began in May 2020.
After his release, he claimed that the uncle engineered the whole ordeal and lied to officers about the forgery case.
“My uncle, in 2009, claimed that we had disinherited him, after staying for years without raising any doubt about the authenticity of the Will,” the victim lamented.
It was yet to be clear if the victim would sue for compensation or seek further legal address.
