Idi Amin's son was in gang that battered man to death in the street - News - Evening Standard
       

Idi Amin's son was in gang that battered man to death in the street

The son of Idi Amin was part of a 40-strong gang that battered a teenager to death in a crowded street.

Shoppers and tourists watched in horror as Faisal Wangita and the rest of the mob swarmed over their victim, stabbing and beating him with knives, hammers, bottles and scaffolding poles.

After 19 seconds of frenzied violence, 18-year-old Mahir Osman lay fatally wounded on the ground in Camden Market, North London.

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Idi Amin's son Faisal Wangita (left) and victim Mahir Osman

Wangita, 25, whose father tortured and killed tens of thousands of his citizens as he ruled Uganda in the 1970s, was originally tried at the Old Bailey in March. A legal order banning his identity was lifted yesterday after the end of a second trial.

Cleared of murder, Wangita was found guilty of conspiracy to wound, conspiracy to possess an offensive weapon and violent disorder. He has been jailed for five years.

The attack was the climax of a feud between two mainly Somali gangs on January 28 last year.

Mr Osman, an engineering student and member of the Centric Boys, was ambushed by a rival gang, the North London Somalis.

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Dictator: Idi Amin

CCTV footage showed him being stabbed 21 times in 19 seconds. He died the same evening in hospital.

Thirteen men and boys aged between 16 and 20 have been convicted in connection with the incident, with Wangita the only non-Somali in the dock.

He was the dictator's 43rd child, by his fifth wife, a former go-go dancer called Sarah Kyolaba but known as "Suicide Sarah" - because she was a go-go dancer for the Ugandan army's Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band.

Wangita was born in 1981 in Saudi Arabia, where Amin and his family were living in exile.

Kyolaba left Amin, moving to Germany then London. Until last year Wangita lived with his mother, now 52 and a party organiser, at a twobedroom home in Tottenham, North London. A family friend said Wangita had been a promising student until he got entangled in gang culture seven years ago. "When he started hanging around with these Somali boys things started to go wrong," the friend said.

"Even though he is not Somali, he was brought up as a Muslim like them and they seem to accept him. He is also a very strong man and quite intimidating."

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