A Ugandan judge serving at the United Nations has been sentenced to more than six years in prison by a British court for forcing a young woman to work without pay while she studied at the University of Oxford.
Lydia Mugambe, 50, was found guilty of four counts under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act, including facilitating travel for exploitation and conspiring to intimidate the victim. She was convicted in March following a trial at Oxford Crown Court and sentenced on Friday to six years and four months in prison.
Mugambe, who has served on Uganda’s High Court since 2013, was appointed last year as a judge at the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals—a body that handles remaining responsibilities from the tribunals set up after the Rwandan genocide and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
The court heard that in 2022, Mugambe lured a young Ugandan woman to the UK under false pretences, exploiting her vulnerability and forcing her to work as a domestic servant without pay. Prosecutors said she conspired with Uganda’s then deputy high commissioner to the UK, John Leonard Mugerwa, to mislead immigration authorities by falsifying the victim’s visa application. Mugerwa has not been tried in connection with the case.
During sentencing, Judge David Foxton criticised Mugambe for her lack of remorse, telling her: “You have shown absolutely no remorse for your conduct. Instead, you continue, wholly unjustifiably I am afraid, to depict yourself as the victim.”
Mugambe denied all charges, maintaining during the trial that she had not exploited the woman. The jury, however, found her guilty on all counts.
Lynette Woodrow, the UK’s national lead for modern slavery at the Crown Prosecution Service, said Mugambe had “used her status in the most egregious way” and “chose to overlook the law she was sworn to uphold”.
The UN tribunal where Mugambe served has acknowledged the case and said it would “take all appropriate administrative actions to further protect the integrity and the proper and efficient functioning of the mechanism.”
The case has drawn international attention, raising fresh concerns over accountability and ethical standards within global judicial institutions.
