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The United Nations has removed the profile of judge Lydia Mugambe from its website after she was sentenced to six years and four months in prison by a UK court for forcing a young Ugandan woman into slavery.

The profile had remained on the website even as the judge, who resigned earlier this month, was convicted in March.

Justice Mugambe, 50, who served as a Ugandan judge and later as a judge at a Tanzania-based UN tribunal handling residual cases from the Rwanda and Yugoslavia war crimes courts, was sentenced in May by the Oxford Crown Court.

She will serve half the sentence in prison and the rest on parole.

In a statement, the UN said it became aware that Justice Mugambe was under investigation for “certain charges” in July 2024 and that the secretary-general waived her immunity.

“During the pendency of the criminal investigation, trial and sentencing, the President of the Mechanism has taken all appropriate administrative actions to protect the integrity and proper and efficient functioning of the Mechanism, including discontinuing Judge Mugambe’s participation in the business of the Mechanism,” the statement said, referring to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

Justice Mugambe entered the UK in 2020 to embark on her PhD in law at the University of Oxford. She needed a maid to look after her children—but, as a student, she could not sponsor a visa for the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

She approached a Ugandan diplomat, John Mugerwa, who sponsored the victim’s entry into the UK as a domestic worker, said the Thames Valley Police in Kidlington where she lived. 

The University of Oxford has since said it is taking disciplinary measures, which could include deregistering Justice Mugambe.

The court heard that when the maid reported her to the police, she threatened to destroy her passport.

“Even after the police had visited her house on the first occasion, Lydia told me she had the authority and that she would burn my passport and bank card,” the maid said, according to justiceinfo.net, a website covering justice issues.

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