Reports Leo Odera Omolo
THE Constitutional Court has stopped the treason and terrorism cases against Col. Kizza Besigye in the High Court and in the General Court Martial. he government owned NEWVISION has reportd in its online this morning.
Besigye addresses journalists at the Constitutional Court in Kampala yesterday
In its unanimous ruling yesterday, the court also ordered that the Bushenyi and Arua murder cases against Besigye’s co-accused in the magistrates’ courts be stopped too.
This follows a petition filed in the Constitutional Court by Besigye, Frank Atukunda and Patrick Okiring to challenge their treason trial in the High Court and the terrorism trial in the Court Martial.
Initially, there were 23 treason suspects, including Besigye, but 12 applied for amnesty and the charges were dropped. Those who still faced trial were Besigye, Atukunda, Robert Tweyambe and Joseph Musasizi Kifeefe, Besigye’s brother, who has since died.
The others were Okiring, Yahaya Amir Asega, Idd Ahmed Yunus, John Arike, Bruhan Driatre Iwago, Samson Agupio and James Kabaka Tabuga.
The charges were in connection with a rebel group, the People’s Redemption Army (PRA), that operated from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The five judges said the State could not continue with the cases because its agents violated the rights of the accused by laying siege of the High Court and re-arresting the suspects to block their release on bail.
The rights of the accused, judges said, were also abused when their bail was blocked after the court had granted it and when the Prisons authorities refused to produce them in court..
“This court cannot sanction any continued prosecution of the petitioners, where during the proceedings, the human rights of the petitioners have been violated to the extent described. No matter how strong the evidence against them may be, no fair trial can be achieved and any subsequent trials would be a waste of time and an abuse of court process,” the judges said.
They were Alice Mpagi Bahigeine, Stephen Engwau, Amos Twinomujuni, Constance Byamugisha and Augustine Sebuturo Nshimye.
After the court registrar, Asaph Ntengye Ruhinda, delivered the ruling, Besigye, speaking outside the court, criticised the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for allowing the cases to go to court.
“If we had a DPP, these cases would not have come to the court at all,” Besigye told journalists.
Besigye and his co-accused petitioned the Constitutional Court in 2007. The cases had been on since 2005 when they were arrested over treason allegedly committed between 2001 and 2004.
In the same year (2005), they were charged with terrorism in the General Court Martial. Later, some of them were charged with murder in Bushenyi and Arua.
The petitioners argued that all the cases in the different courts were based on the same facts to ensure they are not released on bail.
They said the cases were based on the accusations that they committed the offences as members of PRA.
They complained that they were tortured in the process of their arrest and re-arrest at the High Court.
The argued that their trial would not be fair given the circumstances. They also complained that Government officials were making statements implying that they were guilty of treason, terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and murder.
They wanted the court to pronounce itself on whether the siege at the High Court and the murder charges in Bushenyi and Arua contravened the Constitution.
The other issue was whether the simultaneous trials in the High Court and Court Martial contravened the Constitution.
The fourth issue was whether the effect of the conduct of the State towards the Judiciary and the petitioners contravened the Constitution.
The judges said the State did not challenge the evidence brought by the petitioners. They said in her affidavit, the State Attorney, Robinah Rwakoojo, only stated that there was no evidence of armed siege at the court.
The judges noted that Rwakoojo also only stated that the petitioners were duly re-arrested and charged before the Court Martial and that the re-arrest was not in defiance of the High Court order.
Rwakoojo also stated that nobody pronounced the petitioners guilty because the cases were still going on and that the Arua and Bushenyi murder charges were proper.
“We have found that what the security and other State agencies did at the premises of and headquarters of the third organ of State (Judiciary) was an outrageous affront to the Constitution, constitutionalism and the rule of law in Uganda,” the judges ruled and added that the actions of the State agents violated the constitutional rights of the petitioners.
The judges said the suspects had a right to be tried in an independent tribunal, be presumed innocent until proven guilty or plead guilty and had right to bail. The judges also said the suspects had the right to be protected from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and also had the right to a fair hearing.
“We cannot stand by and watch prosecutions mounted and conducted in the midst of such flagrant egregious and mala fide violations of the Constitution and must act to protect the constitutional rights of the petitioners and the citizens of Uganda in general and the rule of law in Uganda buy ordering all the tainted proceedings against the petitioners to stop forthwith and direct the respective courts to discharge the petitioners,” the judges stated.
The judges said the Court Martial proceedings had been nullified by the Supreme Court and the proceedings of the treason trial, and the Arua and Bushenyi murder charges were equally null and void.
Asked for comment, Yusuf Nsibambi, Besigye’s lawyer in the High Court case, said the ruling was a relief to both Besigye and the State because the case was going to be very costly.
The Principal State Attorney, Henry Oluka, declined to comment. “I have no comment on that,” he said.
It was not immediately established whether the DPP would appeal.
