Controversial Criminal Division of the High Court judge Emmanuel Baguma was shocked while pressurizing opposition strongman Dr Kizza Besigye and his co-accused to take plea when he learnt that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) was not ready to kick-off with the matter with immediate effect like he wanted.
Thomas Jatiko the Assistant Director of Public Prosecution who is leading State Prosecutors told Justice Baguma that he needs a month to finish up with arranging the evidence that state is going to rely on when prosecuting the accused.
According to highly placed sources in the judiciary, the judge, who is on official leave which started in December 2025, directed Jatiko to finish up of the arrangement of the evidence and disclosure before the end of January 2026 so that the trial kicks off.
Sources said that Jatiko and his boss Lino Anguzu the DPP are still convincing witnesses who are becoming hostile and don’t want to testify against the accused persons because they have been their colleagues for a long time yet prosecution has already assured the President that they are ready to proceed with the matter.
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“The problem is some witnesses are politicians who have been in the opposition with Dr Besigye for a longtime, so they cannot accept to testify against him in open court that’s why the DPP wants to file an application to hide the identity of some witnesses. So, they want to first deal with that issue,” a source said.
He added that they know the defense team is going to object to the application like they did when the matter was before the Nakawa Chief Magistrate Court. The DPP wanted to hide the identity of witnesses in his application where he also wanted to access Dr Besigye and his co-accused’s phones to recover evidence which they wanted to use against them when the trial starts.
The application to access the phones of Besigye and his co-accused is at the High Court which has not yet determined it even though the DPP want to get a witness to testify on that evidence.
However, they were instructed that they should first secure a court order to access the said phones which is still troubling the prosecution.
“The problem was judge Baguma who refused to transfer the file to the Crimes War Division of the High Court, because it is easy to hide the identity of the witnesses there, the committal papers are clear that the accused persons were committed to the Crimes War Division of the High Court,” a senior prosecutor told this website
The defense lawyers accused Justice Baguma of working on their file under pressure with his main goal being to finish the trial quickly so that the parties sort themselves out at the Court of Appeal which the defense lawyers claim will threaten fair trail of their people.
Judge Baguma promised to act upon government officials who are moving around telling the media and public that Besigye will only be released after the conclusion of his trial.
Among them is Thomas Tayebwa the deputy speaker of parliament, ministers Dr Chris Baryomunsi and Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi who told the people of Rukungiri and Kabale the home area of Dr Besigye that the State has overwhelming evidence against the accused persons and they are ready to prosecute them.
