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Victims of Anti-Terrorism bill face 20 years in prison

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Victims of the just passed Anti-Terrorism Amendment Bill are set to face 20 years in prison, Eagle Online has established.

Last month, the government through Norbert Mao, the Ministry of Justice And Constitutional Affairs table tabled before Parliament the Anti-Terrorism Amendment Bill. The bill seeks to provide for the offence of proliferation financing and for related matters.

Following the third reading on August 30, 2022, the Parliament Chaired by Speaker Anita Among passed the Anti-Terrorism Amendment bill. The bill was sent to President Yoweri Museveni to sign into law or send it back to parliament for review or scrutiny.

The tabling and passing of the bill followed the adoption of Uganda’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) in 2016. The MER contains an assessment of Uganda’s AML/CFT legal and regulatory regime.

The MER highlighted several matters that Uganda needs to address in its AML/CFT legal and regulatory framework for Uganda to be considered compliant with the FATF Recommendations.

Recommendation seven of the FATF recommendations requires countries to implement targeted financial sanctions to comply with the UN Security Council Resolutions relating to the prevention, suppression, and disruption of proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and its financing.

According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Proliferation financing is the act of providing funds or financial services which are used, in whole or in part for the manufacture, acquisition, possession, development, export, tans-shipment, brokering, transport, transfer, stockpiling or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery and related materials in contravention of national Laws or where applicable, international obligations.

The two-clause bill seeks to amend section two of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2002 to insert a new section ‘9B’ after Section 9A to provide for the offence of proliferation financing and make consequential amendments to section 32A to incorporate the aspects of proliferation financing.

Section ‘9B’ subsection one of the bill stipulates that any person or organisation commits the offence of proliferation financing where the person or organisation makes available an asset; provides a financial service or conducts a financial transaction and the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the asset, financial service or financial transaction is intended, in whole or in part, to facilitate any of the proliferation financing activities, regardless of whether the specified activity occurs or is attempted.

Subsection two (a) prohibits the manufacture, production, possession, acquisition, stockpiling, storage, development, transportation, sale, supply, transfer, export, transhipment or use of nuclear weapons; chemical weapons; biological weapons; or materials related to nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons or radiological weapon that are prescribed by regulations or restricted or prohibited under any enactment relating to export or import controlled measures.

The bill also blocks the provision of technical training, advice, service, brokering or assistance related to any of the activities under Subsection two (a)

“Any person or organisation that contravenes subsection (l) is, on conviction, liable to imprisonment not exceeding twenty years or a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand currency points or both.” shows subsection three of the bill

 “Where an organisation commits an offence under this section, any officer, director, or agent of the organisation who directed, authorized, assented to, acquiesced in or participated in the commission of the offence is a party to the offence is liable to the punishment for the offence,” shows section four of the bill.

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