Besigye, Lutale case hearing set for Wednesday

KAMPALA - The High Court is Wednesday (February 19) scheduled to hear an application seeking orders to compel the government to unconditionally release four-time presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye and his aide, Hajj Obeid Lutale.

The Civil Division of the High Court registrar, Simon Kintu Zirintuusa, set the hearing date on Tuesday (January 18).

He said the hearing is to begin at 9:00am. 

"If no appearance is made on your behalf, by yourself/your pleader or someone authorized by law to act for you, the case will be heard in your absence,” warned Zirintuusa.

The development comes after the Supreme Court on January 31 this year outlawed the trial of civilians in military courts.

The verdict came at a time when Besigye and Lutale, who are accused of unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition, were scheduled to return to the General Court Martial (GCM) on February 3. 

But the two, who are also battling offences relating to security, did not appear because the GCM did not sit.

Through their lawyers, Besigye and Lutale want the Civil Division of the High Court to issue a writ of habeas corpus (production warrant) requiring government servants and agents to produce them before the court for appropriate orders.

The lawyers filed an application against the Attorney General and the Commissioner General of Prisons. 

Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, and Proscovia Kunihira, one of Besigye’s lawyers, swore affidavits in support of the application.

In her application, Byanyima, who is also the executive director of UNAIDS, contends that Besigye and Lutale were on November 16 last year abducted from Riverside Nairobi, Kenya, where they had been invited for a book launch by former Kenyan justice minister, Martha Karua. Karua is now Besigye’s lead lawyer.

“After the duo was arrested, they were driven back to Uganda against their will and without due process,” Byanyima states.

Byanyima asserts that after being held incommunicado for three days at Makindye Military barracks in Kampala, Besigye and Lutale were arraigned before the GCM and charged with offences relating to security and unlawful possession of firearms.

At the GCM, the two contested the court’s powers and jurisdiction to try them, but were remanded to Luzira Prison.

Byanyima contends that the continued detention of Besigye and Lutale is unlawful because the Supreme Court ordered the GCM to immediately cease the trial of cases involving civilians and transfer their files to competent civilian courts.

The verdict stopping trial of civilians in the GCM followed a petition filed by former Nakawa MP Michael Kabaziguruka, who in July 2021 challenged his trial at the military court on treason charges.

Byanyima contends that Besigye and Lutale are being detained illegally by the Government and that their continued detention tantamounts to infringement on their right to personal liberty.

Prosecution alleges that Besigye and Lutale, and others still at large, between October 2023 and November 2024, while in the cities of Geneva in Switzerland, Athens in Greece and Nairobi in Kenya, held meetings aimed at soliciting logistical support and identifying military targets in Uganda with intent to prejudice the security of the defence forces.

Prosecution also alleges that Besigye and Lutale on November 16, 2024, while at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi, were found in unlawful possession of pistols, model 27 KAL number 765 and pistol HB 1014 1953, respectively, as well as ammunition, which are ordinarily the monopoly of the defence forces.