05-05-2025
Ugandan UN judge jailed in UK for 'egregious' forced labour offence
A Ugandan and UN judge was jailed in Britain for more than six years on Friday for forcing a young woman to work without pay while the judge studied at the University of Oxford.
Lydia Mugambe, a judge of Uganda's high court since 2013, was appointed in 2023 to be a judge for the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which performs functions of previous tribunals relating to war crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Prosecutors said Mugambe, 50, used her status in the "most egregious way" by tricking a young Ugandan woman to come to the UK in 2022 to work as a maid without payment.
Mugambe was charged under the UK's Modern Slavery Act with conspiring with John Leonard Mugerwa, then Uganda's deputy high commissioner, to get the victim into the UK by lying on her visa application.
Mugambe was also charged with facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work and conspiracy to intimidate her victim to stop her giving evidence.
