Rape case against city pastor withdrawn
Rape case against city pastor withdrawn
The source has learned that Saulite Anda, a citizen of Latvia who had earlier this year accused a city pastor of luring her into the nation before he allegedly raped her, has subsequently dropped the lawsuit.
The source has received the withdrawal letter dated July 18, 2023, in which Anda claims that the allegations of rape against Pastor Joseph Collins Twahirwa of Epikaizo Ministries International in Bugoloobi have been withdrawn due to forgiveness.
The director of the police department’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are the recipients of the withdrawal letter.
A portion of the withdrawal letter delivered to the DPP’s office states, “I humbly submit my application to withdraw the above-mentioned case after forgiving Mr. Twahirwa Joseph Collins wholeheartedly.”
“I hope he will live freely from today (August 23, 2023) and onwards since I have no further grievances in reference to the above case,” the statement continued. The Criminal Investigations Directorate’s withdrawal form bears a stamp indicating that the same letter was received on August 28.
Upon being contacted, Irene Nakimbugwe, the deputy spokeswoman for the DPP’s office, confirmed that they had received the withdrawal letter. According to her, it was left at the Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s court by an unidentified individual, and they are unable to verify if Anda actually wrote it.
Nakimbugwe continued, saying that they had instructed the person who delivered the letter to advise Anda to see the DPP in person to learn why she was withdrawing the case, but they had never heard from her and are presently unsure of her whereabouts.
“Neither Anda nor the person who dropped off the note have been contacted by us. We took a great interest in her case, so if she had really intended to withdraw it, she ought to have come to us.
She arrived in person, met the DPP, and informed her about her experience while the case was still pending.
We received a letter stating that the DPP was no longer interested in the case out of the blue, she claimed, despite having gone above and beyond to see that the pastor was captured and the case was approved.
Nakimbugwe claims that the state will continue to prosecute the pastor for the alleged crime because the DPP has not verified the authenticity of the letter purportedly from Anda withdrawing the case. The pastor was already committed to the High court pending trial, and they are simply waiting for the High court to grant them a day for the hearing so they can move forward.
Speaking about the case, Pastor Twahirwa, a 28-year-old lawyer by trade, accused the DPP of conducting a witch hunt and questioned why the prosecution is still going after him when the complainant has already lost interest in the case.
“For the past year, I have been purposefully denied justice in my own country and am the target of a witch hunt.” Although I have lost a lot, many people rely on me, Twahirwa stated. He also mentioned that he was the first to report Anda for cyberbullying on January 1st of this year, but nothing was done about it.
