The Martial Appeals Court in Kampala upheld a death...

The Martial Appeals Court in Kampala upheld a death sentence against an ailing UPDF soldier who killed a colleague in Gulu district.Pte Patrick Poro, 43, attached to the 23rd Battalion in Gulu, who has been on death row since 2000, had recently appealed to the Army's highest appellate court, raising five grounds.But a five-member bench chaired by Justice Elly Turyamubona dismissed Poro's appeal, and upheld his conviction and death sentence for the shooting death of a fellow soldier, Pte Francis Atika, using an SMG on May 25, 2000. Poro, a seemingly weak and ill soldier, who was supported to the court room at the Makindye Officer's Mess expecting to be freed from the gallows, left the court with nothing changed. His fellow prisoners and prison warders supported him back to the heavily-guarded military pick-up truck that returned him to Luzira Upper Prison.