Lukwago objects to charging Dr Besigye with crimes committed outside Uganda

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Erias Lukwago, the lawyer representing Dr Kizza Besigye has objected to charging his client with crimes allegedly committed outside the country.

Speaking moments after the General Court Martial Chairman Brigadier Freeman Mugabe read out the charge sheet that listed four counts on which Besigye and Haji Obed Lutale have been charged, Lukwago said the UPDF cannot claim to have universal jurisdiction.

Besigye and Lutale have been charged with being found in possession of two pistols and eight rounds of ammunition and also conspiring to prejudice the security of Uganda. All these crimes were allegedly committed in Kenya, Switzerland and Greece.

However, Lukwago said these charges can’t stand because the chargesheet doesn’t mention whether being found in possession of pistols is in breach of the UPDF Act or the Kenya Defense Forces Act. “If you talk about acts committed in Kenya and you relate them to the UPDF Act of Uganda it is a nullity. It’s our prayer that this tribunal strike out this chargesheet and release the accused persons,” Lukwago said.

He also objected to the prosecution lawyer the judge advocate Lt. Col Raphael Mugisha who said the UPDF Act allows the charging of anybody who has committed a service offence whether committed in Uganda or outside. But Lukwago said this particular section of the UPDF Act talks about service offences yet neither Besigye nor Lutale are serving members of the UPDF.

Lukwago also told the court that the offences against Besigye and Lutale were brought in the court martial illegally as the two had been neither extradited nor deported from Kenya where they had gone legally. He added that those are the only two ways through which someone can be removed from another country.

Lukwago said that Besigye and Lutale entered Kenya legally and as far as the law is concerned, they are still there because they have not been legally cleared to re-enter Uganda.

Besigye was on Saturday kidnapped from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital where he had gone to attend a book launch of Martha Karua, a prominent opposition leader in Kenya. He was kept at Makindye military barracks since Sunday last week and was only presented to the court martial today.

The Court has since remanded him and Lutale to Luzira Prisons until December 2 when it is expected to rule on the preliminary objections raised by Lukwago.

Earlier, Besigye and Lutale had objected to being tried in the court martial because they were not soldiers. However, the court overruled the objection arguing that the UPDF Act allows for the charging of people in the military court even when they are not service members for as long as they commit crimes that are triable by the general court martial.

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