Inciting Violence: Court Pushes Besigye’s Case to February 11
Buganda Road Court has adjourned the case of inciting violence against jailed veteran opposition politician Dr. Kizza Besigye and his political ally, Samuel Lubega Mukaku, to February 11, 2025.
The two were arrested in downtown Kampala demonstrating against high commodity prices in Uganda in 2022.
Court had set January 9, 2025, for further hearing, but Besigye, who is jailed at Luzira maximum prison on charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and treachery, was not produced to court by prison authorities
This compelled the court to issue a production warrant directing the Uganda Prisons to produce Besigye.
The court ordered that the warrant be extracted, signed, and served to the prison authorities, ordering them to produce Besigye before the court on January 21, 2025.
Today, Uganda Prisons produced Besigye before Buganda Road Court, but the case was adjourned to February 11, 2025.
During a previous court appearance, the prosecution stated that investigations were still ongoing to gather additional evidence and produce more witnesses.
Both the prosecution and defense agreed that all witnesses would be presented in court today.
However, today, the prosecution produced only one police officer from the crime scene as a witness, prompting lead defense lawyer Erias Lukwago to question why only one witness was presented despite the presence of numerous security personnel and civilians at the scene during Besigye’s arrest.
Lukwago argued that the State’s intent is not prosecution but persecution of Besigye.
“This is a case that has dragged on for a very long time. You realize they allege that the case was committed way back on the 14th day of June 2022. We are in 2025. And you know justice delayed is justice denied. They keep on procrastinating, bringing in one witness, and then they seek an adjournment to continue persecuting Besigye, nothing else,” Lukwago said.
“This is a matter that ought to have been concluded way back in 2022. So, there is no reason this case had to crossover to 2023, to 2024; now we are in 2025. I hope it won’t go up to 2026 just to keep Dr. Besigye busy in the corridors of this. Persecution has so many dimensions. This is one aspect of persecution: to keep Dr. Besigye running up and down and to distract us from other business,” Lukwago added.
Meanwhile, Besigye and his other political ally, Hajj Obeid Lutale Kamulegeya, will appear again in the General Court Martial on February 3, 2025, for further hearing of the case in which they are charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and treachery.
By ChipReports