Judge rejects phone exhibit at K''la bombings trial

By Vision Reporters

KAMPALA - The trial judge at the trial of 13 men accused of masterminding the July 2010 Kampala twin bombings has rejected prosecution evidence of a mobile phone handset recovered at Makindye House.

On Friday, Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo rejected the evidence after queries were raised over storage of the handset.

A total of 76 people perished in the two incidents that occurred at Kyadondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kampala five years ago. Several others were injured from the blasts.

Revelers were watching the World Cup final game between Spain and Holland, at the tournament played in South Africa.

The third bomb planted at Makindye House in the city suburb of Makindye failed to go off. It was rigged to explode when the phone rang but it malfunctioned. It was recovered the next day.

An agent of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was testifying as a prosecution witness. He was guided by Lino Anguzu.

The identities of the witnesses who are FBI agents are concealed. This is on the prompting of the prosecution team who made the request to the judge, on grounds of security consciousness.

Prior, the defence lawyers raised a query on how the item was accessed by prosecution, yet it was already under storage and authority of court.

They also wondered how the witness  who could not ascertain the identity on Wednesday, could ably do so on Friday.

However in his explanation, the witness recorded as Witness F, explained, saying the handset was stored in three plastic transparent bags(seals).

“On Wednesday, I was not able to identity it because I could not recognise the seal which I signed, since there were two other seals on top. I did not put the top sealing. Mine was inside,” stated Witness F.

But when the judge asked Anguzu about the people present when they retrieved the item from the storage, he said there were several people but could recall only a few.

Consequently, the judge said under the circumstances, doubt had been cast on the admissibility of the evidence as a prosecution exhibit.

“The law is, if your item is submitted to court but in possession of the court, the glitch is that when you were doing this, there was no other officer of court, not even the bare minimum of a court orderly,” explained the judge.


Case fact file

Presiding Judge: Alfonse Owiny-Dollo

Prosecution team: Susan Okalany, John Baptist Asiimwe, Lino Anguzu Thomas Jatiko, and Rachael Bikhole.

Defence lawyers: Caleb Alaka, Yunus Kasirivu, Julius Galisonga, Owor Onyango, Evans Ochieng, Henry Kunya, and Annette Badda.

Accused: Hussein Hassan Agad, Idris Magondu, Isa Ahamed Luyima, Hassan Haruna Luyima, Abubakari Batematyo, and Yahya Suleiman Mbuthia, Habib Suleiman Njoroge, Omar Awadh Omar, Mohammad Hamid Sulaiman, Seleman Hijar Nyamandondo, Mohammad Ali Mohammad, Dr Ismael Kalule, and Muzafar Luyima.