Sitting at the UN Criminal Court, Ugandan High Court Judge Lydia Mugambe, first appeared in the UK court on Thursday, faced charges of making a young Ugandan woman work as slaves while studying in Oxford.
49-year-old Mugambe defendant By bringing young female victims to the UK, they will “utilise her status” in the “most awful way” and use various forms of manipulation and intimidation to provide unpaid domestic services, including domestic chores and caring for Mugambe children.
The prosecutor says Mugambe Conspired Together with John Leonard Mugawa, then deputy high commissioner for Uganda, he secured the victims' entry into the UK. Mugambe is said to have tried to take the girl to London as a student, but when this didn't work, she traded the bounty with Mugawa to sponsor the girl as a domestic worker in his home. In exchange, Mugambe has pledged to speak to the judge who is primarily concerned with legal action involving Mugawa.
The charges filed against Mugambe said her intention was to promote the victim's trip “in light of her being exploited” for mandatory labor. After she was accepted into the UK, Mugambe was said to have effectively transformed her into an indentured servant by using threats and deceptions to prevent her from finding beneficial employment and by doing unpaid household chores until “debt” to Mugambe was “repaid” to bring her to London.
The police have become I was involved February 2023, after a particularly bitter discussion between Mugambe and the victims. Video of the police bodycam captured Mugambe, claiming that the victims were satisfied with their arrangement.
“I think it's one of two things. She wants to work more. This is what happens when they come and they're excited about the pound and then want to work far more than the conditions they came, so that's what she wants,” Mugambe told police to explain the victim's complaints against her.
The distraught victim was stuffing hers while police were talking to Mugambe. The victim said she had effectively been detained inmates at her home since her arrival in July 2022. She was forbidden by a judge through forced services to leave until she paid off her “travel debt.”
Additional charges have been levelled against Mugambe for attempting to blackmail the victim and threaten her to withdraw all complaints against her. Mugambe is said to have asked her fellow co-conspirators to pressure the victim's pastor to drop the case about two weeks before she went to court.
Police told Oxford Crown Court that Mugambe had falsely insisted “diplomatic immunity” when he warned him not to attempt to blackmail the victim. She also falsely claimed that she could not be arrested because of her diplomatic immunity.
Mugambe It was rejected All charges against her would have told the court that she had not withholded the victim's passport, not forcing her to do domestic services and allowed her to leave the house at any time. She said the victim had her own keys in the house and was unable to physically prevent her from leaving.
According to the international residual mechanism for her International Criminal Court profileMugambe has been a judge of the Uganda High Court since 2013 and was appointed to the United Nations Court in May 2023. She holds a law degree from universities in Uganda, South Africa and Sweden and is “currently a doctoral researcher at Oxford University.”
“Judge Mugambe is a member of several professional associations, including the International Association of Women's Judges, East Africa Magistrates Association, Uganda Women's Judges Association, Federal Magistrates and Judges Association, and the Oxford Human Rights Hub. She has presented and presented issues of human rights and child rights,” the United Nations noted.
