A 23-year-old woman has been found guilty by a court in Kampala, Uganda after she staged her own kidnapping to test her husband’s love for her.
According to the Daily Monitor, Aminah Mirembe was ordered to pay a fine of UShs300,000 ($80) or serve a prison sentence of one year.
‘The convict is hereby sentenced to a fine of UShs300,000 and in defaulting, she should be imprisoned for one-year,’ magistrate Patrick Talisuna was quoted as saying.
The report said that Mirembe on May 26 gave police in Kampala false information that she had been kidnapped and that her abductors were demanding ransom of UShs500,000.
When asked why she put her loved ones on tension, she said: ‘I was testing my husband’s love for me.’
The local Punch newspaper reported that Mirembe was charged with one count of giving false information to police about her kidnap.
The report said that during mitigation, the state prosecutor, Lydia Batiibwe, asked the court to give the convict a deterrent sentence, asserting that cases of self-kidnap were on the increase in Uganda and therefore a severe punishment would deter would-be offenders.