Hearing of jailed Tabliq leader Kamoga bail flops

COURT

KAMPALA - The Court of Appeal has referred the hearing of the bail application of Tabliq leader Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga to May 2.

On Wednesday, senior state attorney Lilian Omara requested court for one week to make a reply on Kamoga's bail application.

The court was presided over by Justice Christine Madrama.

Kamoga, 61, is seeking to be released on bail pending the determination of his appeal.

Last August, the International Crimes Division of the High Court presided over by three judges, convicted Kamoga with his brother Murta Mudde Bukenya, Siraje Kawooya and Fahad Kalungi of the charge of terrorism.

While the court ordered Kamoga, Bukenya, Kawooya and Kalungi to spend the rest of their lives in prison, teir co-convicts sheikhs Yusuf Kakande and Abdu Salaam Sekayanja were each jailed for 30 years in prison.

However, through his lawyer Friday Roberts Kagoro, Kamoga applied to the Court of Appeal seeking to be released on bail pending the hearing and determination of his appeal.

According to his application, the Tabliq cleric advanced among his grounds that because of the heavy schedules of the appeals court, a possibility of an inordinate delay before his appeal is heard and determined, there is high likelihood of success of his appeal against his conviction and sentence.

He also advanced the ground of being of advanced age, has substantial sureties to stand for him and that he and his sureties would abide by any condition for his release.

Upon trial, Kamoga and 13 others were indicted for complicity in the murder of sheikhs Mustafa Bahiga and Hassan Kirya, who were shot dead on different dates.

Bahiga and Kirya were killed by unknown assailants in 2015 at Bwebajja Mosque and Bweyogerere Market, respectively.