Gulu court trial postponed over a jammed door lock

Aug 16, 2019

The new date was to be communicated to the accused persons by the prison warders in their production warrant documents.

JUSTICE     

KAMPALA - Gulu High Court sitting failed to kick-off and the judge circumstantially adjourned the trial of cause-listed criminal cases by two weeks (till August 29) due to a jammed lock to the court inmates' cells.

The Gulu senior resident state attorney, Patrick Omia who also represents the prosecution desk at the High Court confirmed that soon after the aborted sitting, he was informed that the lock to the court prison cells had a mechanical problem and it could not, therefore, be accessed immediately to allow the listed inmates to be produced in the court.

The resident high court judge attached to the Gulu Northern Circuit, Justice Stephen Mubiru adjourned the trial after waiting for the inmates to be ushered in the dock in vain upon taking his seat by 9:00 am.

The new date was to be communicated to the accused persons by the prison warders in their production warrant documents.

Omia, however, said the door lock was later broken by the technical team but the trial judge had already adjourned the hearings.

The Judge could not be accessed on this matter as he immediately disembarked to his chambers and drove off.

Omia disclosed that about 60 criminal case files have been lined up on the current cause-list that is before the judge. He said even though many witnesses and litigants had turned up to support their cases, they had to comply with the new date as issued by the court.

Recently, the Judiciary admitted that there is a serious backlog of cases.

Jessica Lakot, aged 52 said she meets a lot of costs traveling from Amuru to attend her case that is before the High Court in Gulu each time her file is adjourned to new dates.

She appealed to the government (Judiciary) to refund her money or start providing her and her team of witnesses with money to travel to and fro court.

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