UGANDA: Uganda president quashes death sentence for "coward" soldier

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has quashed a death sentence on a soldier found guilty of cowardice and sentenced to die by firing squad, military spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said Thursday.

A military court sentenced Corporal Pimundu Gimaro to death for allegedly failing to respond late last month to a report by a civilian that Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had attacked a village near the camp where Gimaro was stationed.

"The commander-in-chief (president) under his prerogative of mercy has decided that the court should reduce the sentence because the corporal is a 1st offender," Bantariza told AFP.

"He has directed that the corporal serve a long period in prison and should be dismissed from the army," he added.

Gimaro's failure to act on the information is said to have allowed the rebels to kill 8 civilians when they attacked the village in northeastern Uganda's Soroti district.

Gimaro's defence was that he had been detailed to guard a college and not the village that the rebels attacked.