About a month ago twelve suspects including a UPDF Colonel and other soldiers plus civilians and a woman were arrested in different parts of Uganda and later charged before Brig Moses Ddiba Ssentongo of Makindye Military Court Martial on allegations that they had conspired to attack Kabamba military barracks in Mubende in April 2014 with the intention of overthrowing the government of Uganda.
The accused civilians and soldiers were remanded at Kiggo and Makindye military prisons respectively until June 4, when they would re-appear in court for the mention of their case.
Abdallah Kiwanuka of Lukwago and Co. Advocates was given instructions by the relatives of the suspects to defend them in the Court Martial.
On the 30th day of May 2014, Lawyer Kiwanuka went to Kiggo prison and easily got access to the civilian suspects, interviewed them then left for Makindye Military Barracks to interview the soldier suspects.
But later with no good reason lawyer Kiwanuka was denied access to the suspects at Makindye. He was told to go back to Makindye on the 2nd day of June 2014 at 9am but when he went there he was made to sit and wait for the whole day without any convincing explanation why he was not being given access to his clients.
It was at 5:00pm when one of security officers came and told him to go back the following day at 9am and the lawyer politely obliged. The following day which was the 2nd of June 2014 Kiwanuka was already at the Barracks by 8am.
But he was made to wait till 2:00pm when the OC in charge of the prison came and told him that he had strict instruction from his president Museveni not to allow the lawyer access to his clients until the Head of the Barracks, Col. Kanyesigye had met the lawyer or Okayed the access.
Lawyer Kiwanuka protested this move and told the OC that he needed to see and talk to his clients as he had received reports that they had been tortured and some of them were in comma.
The OC assured him that all his clients were fine and none of them had been tortured. Kiwanuka did not believe him as his source of information had assured him that some of the suspects were in comma as a result of the torture.
The lawyer refused to leave the barracks until he had seen the suspects.
The OC reached out to the said Col. Kanyesigye on phone who assured him in his (Kiwanuka’s) presence that he would see the suspects if he went to the barracks the following day at 8am which was the 3rd day of June (Martyrs’ day) and a public holiday in Uganda.
On 3rd June 2014 at 8am as advised the lawyer entered the barracks and waited to get access to the suspects but he was made to wait until 3pm when he was told that he could not access the suspects because the said Col. Kanyesigye was not around to authorize his access to the suspects.
That the colonel had gone to Namugongo shrine to command the security team deployed there. The lawyer refused to get out of the barracks and resisted attempts to push him out but he was over powered and brutally forced out. On Thursday, the 5th day of June the same lawyer received a rumour that one of the suspects had died as a result of the wounds sustained during the torture.
Lawyer Kiwanuka went to Makindye barracks to inquire about this but the security officer assured him that the suspects were safe and none had died. Only to confirm on Sunday the 8th day of June 2014 that indeed one of the suspects, Captain John Bosco Lutwama, had died from the torture wounds as earlier reported.
On Sunday, the 8th day of June 2014 some UPDF officers took the body to his ancestral home at Kapeeka in Luweero District and instructed the relatives to burry the body immediately. When lawyer Kiwanuka learnt of this he intervened and advised the relatives that an independent postmortem report must be done before the burial.
The lawyer immediately contacted medical personnel to do the postmortem but when UPDF learnt of this, they immediately sent UPDF officers to Kapeeka to ensure that burial is done by 2pm that day.
The intimidated relatives immediately buried the body on seeing the UPDF soldiers. It is important to note that the suspects who were to re-appear on June 4, for mention of their case did not and no reason has been given by the court to the lawyer but reports indicate that consultations are being done on how to handle the case with authorities in government which is illegal.
The composition and membership of the said court is being changed from time to time. As we talk now the bench is not full and hearing is likely to stall while the suspects are languishing in custody.
We have already found that the suspects are being required to answer to two crimes, separate and distinct in their own nature, yet the two are being bundled up in one count. This raises a probability of infringing Article 28(2) (b) of the Constitution as it is not clear which exact crime the respondents are being required to answer and defend them against.
To be continued