By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has threatened to take legal action against National Unity Platform leaders including Members of Parliament for contempt of court.
The threat is contained in a press statement issued by the UPDF Defence Public Information Officer, Brig. General Felix Kulayigye on Monday, 15th April, 2024.
Kulayigye accuses a section of members of the opposition who attended the Court Martial Sitting at Makindye on Monday to hear the bail application by NUP supporters of hooliganism.
“While the Court Martial was in session at Makindye, some members in the audience who included Members of Parliament and defendants in the dock, displayed the most contemptuous acts of hooliganism against the honorable Court,” writes Kulayigye.
Kulayigye warns that UPDF will not hesitate to ask the Court Martial authorities, “to take legal action against those involved,” adding that the sanctity of the court must be respected at all times.
Yesterday, one of the defendants was seen being carried away from the court premises after he turned rowdy and was insulting the court authorities.
Most of the defendants could be heard saying they are in prison because they protected Bobi Wine’s votes and cannot plead with President Museveni for their release.
“If it means dying in Prison, we shall die but we can’t accept to beg Museveni for forgiveness,” they said.
Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi was among the Members of Parliament subscribing to NUP who attended the Court Martial.
Meanwhile Ssenyoni says Muhydin Sanya Kakooza was severely beaten with batons and dragged out of the General Court Martial.
He says this happened after Kakooza spoke out vehemently in disagreement with the ruling of the military court declining to grant them bail.
He also claims that the prisoners told them that military men, Ministers & other Gov’t officials have been approaching them in jail, telling them to accept the charges of terrorism and implicate NUP leaders, in exchange for millions of shs and houses.
BACKGROUND
On Monday, 15th April, 2024, Military Police were called in to calm the General Court Martial in Makindye, after the bail application for 28 supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) was for the third time dismissed. The 28 are facing trial of unlawful possession of ammunition.
Immediately after the ruling of the Court, the group together with their relatives turned rowdy prompting the calling of military police to re-enforce security at the Court premises.
The decision to deny bail angered the suspects prompting one of them, Muydin Kakooza commonly known as Saanya to jump out of the dock to pursue and charge at the court’s chairman.
Muhydin was later lifted out of the court hall by military police and locked in a waiting military van where he continued to shout on top of his voice attracting the attention of his relatives. This is the second time Muhydin charges at the court martial Chairperson protesting the long stay on remand on bailable offenses.
The relatives of the accused person together with their sureties condemned the Court ruling saying it is a violation of the accused person’s right to liberty. The accused persons have now been further remanded until May 6th, 2024 for the prosecution to present their seventh witness.
Earlier, the seven member Panel of the Court chaired by Brigadier Robert Mugabe on Monday denied the supporters bail on grounds that they did not prove that they have fixed places of abode in the court’s jurisdiction.
Although the Court has found the sureties of the accused persons who included politicians such as the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi to be substantial, they couldn’t be released on the basis that they are most likely to abscond once granted bail.
“In the premises, this court finds no merit in the application and declines to grant bail to the applicants. The application is hereby dismissed. Court orders an expeditious trial of the applicants in the main case,” we so rule. This was the third time that the Court is denying bail to the group.
The accused, including Yasin Ssekitoleko alias Machete, Robert Christopher Rugumayo, Patrick Mwase, Simon Kikaabe, Muhydin Kakooza, Olivia Lutaaya, Abdu Matovu, Ronald Kijambo, Sharif Kalanzi, Joseph Muwonge, Mesach Kiwanuka, Abdalla Kintu, Umar Emma Kato, and Musa Kavuma, are alleged to have been found in illegal possession of 13 pieces of explosive devices between November 2020 and May 2021 in areas of Jinja, Mbale, Kireka, Nakulabye, Kawempe, Natete, and Kampala Central.
Initially, this group had 32 people. However, in April 2023 when the court heard their second bail application, it released only four of their co accused whom court found that they had substantial sureties.
The remaining 28 supporters have been on remand in Kitalya and Luzira prisons since May 2021. The accused persons were arrested by CMI operatives after the Police accused them of plotting to carry out petrol bomb attacks targeting government vehicles and buildings in various places in the country.
Police claimed that the suspects masterminded attacks on Kasubi Royal tombs, on former Jinja resident city commissioner Eric Sakwa in Nakulabye, on Uganda Registration Services Bureau, and the Katwe Police station, among others. They were reportedly planning to block President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni from swearing in for his sixth term of office.
