Ex-pat doctor rages over property seizure

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A naturalised Australian cardiologist acquitted of murdering his wife in Uganda is claiming he is the victim of a conspiracy to deprive him of his property.

Seven years ago Dr Aggrey Kiyingi was acquitted of organising the 2005 shooting murder of his wife Robinah Kiyingi – a high-profile lawyer revered for the human rights and corruption cases she pursued. Mrs. Kiyingi, 55, who was an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda, as well as barrister in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, was gunned down while waiting for her maid to open the gate to her plush Buziga home.

Last week Uganda’s high court ordered seven properties belonging to Dr Kiyingi be sold to businesswoman Diana Jacqueline Asiimwe to repay a 1.29 million Australian dollar debt.

“They are being stolen,” Dr Kiyingi said, adding: “They forged my signature. They forged papers for someone I’ve never met and never known. (..) She (Asiimwe) doesn’t exist.”

Dr Kiyingi likened Uganda’s government to the mafia, saying there are now moves to seize his family’s ancestral lands in Uganda. “They are trying to steal my ancestral land,” he said. “When they do that, that’s it, they’ve killed you. You don’t do that.”

Dr Kiyingi says his wife was killed for political reasons and says he was framed for her death. “By getting rid of her, they silenced her. By getting rid of me, they get rid of a threat,” he said. He has taken out full-page advertisments in Uganda newspapers railing against the seizure of his property.

Dr Kiyingi moved to Australia from Uganda in the 1980s and still has a practice in Sydney.