By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A British court on Thursday convicted a Ugandan and United Nations judge for forcing a young woman to work as a slave while she was undergoing a PhD course at Oxford University.
Lydia Mugambe was appointed in 2023 as a judge of the U.N. International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which carries out functions of previous tribunals relating to war crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Prosecutors said Mugambe, 49, used her status in the “most egregious way” by tricking a young Ugandan woman into coming to Britain in 2022 to work as a maid without payment.
“Ms Mugambe used her knowledge and power to deceive (the victim) into coming to the UK, taking advantage of her naivety to deceive and induce her into working for her for nothing,” prosecutor Caroline Haughey told a judge at Oxford Crown Court.
Mugambe was charged under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act with conspiring with John Leonard Mugerwa, who was then Uganda’s deputy high commissioner, to facilitate the commission of a breach of immigration law.
Prosecutors said Mugambe and Mugerwa, who was not on trial, provided false information that the woman would work at the High Commission in order to bring her into the country.
Mugambe was also charged with facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness, to which she pleaded not guilty.
Mugambe, who told the court she had never exploited the woman, was convicted of all four counts on Thursday. She will be sentenced at a later date.
