Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) boss in charge of external relations and also the former African Union policy adviser Michael Katungi Mpeirwe has hired international lawyers to represent him in the ongoing extradition trial.
Katungi is protesting an application filed by the government of Uganda through the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Lino Anguzu to extradite him to United States of America so that he faces criminal trial related to illegal arms and drug trafficking dealings.
The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Norbert Mao and the Attorney General’s chambers all approved Katungi’s extradition and Katungi is only waiting for the approval from Ritah Kidasa Wanyama the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate.
Even though DPP presented all the necessary documents from both the government of Uganda and United States, Katungi is protesting his extradition and has hired top international lawyers based in Uganda.
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Ono Bwino can exclusively report that Katungi has hired criminal law giant MacDusman Kabega who is also one of the very few Ugandan lawyers allowed to practice law at the International Criminal Court of Justice that sits in Hague, Netherlands.
Kabega will be assisted by Medard Lubega Sseggona who is also a Constitutional law giant and sources at Murchison Bay Prison where Katungi is being detained revealed that on Saturday, he held a strategic and planning meeting in prison.
Ugandans led by former spy master Gen David Sejusa are protesting the move by the government of Uganda to extradite Katungi to United States insisting that in doing so, Uganda will be not protecting its citizens.
They insist that like United States which does not allow its citizens to face criminal trial outside its jurisdiction, Katungi should also be tried in Uganda.
However, this investigate website can exclusively report that United States of America’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio is closely monitoring Katungi’s extradition process.
“It’s true no country wishes to see its own citizen criminally tried in a foreign country but Uganda signed international treaties that allow it. President Donald Trump’s government is very serious on cases involving drug trafficking and illegal armed dealings because it fuels terrorism and other criminalities not only on American land but worldwide,” a highly placed source at the America Embassy in Kampala said.
He further claimed that Katungi’s issue was top of the agenda when the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) who is also the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operation Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba met with Mikael Cleverley the Acting ambassador of United States in Kampala early this week.
Currently Cleverley is the head of the American Embassy in Kampala after the expiration of William Popp’s term.
A source at the US embassy told this reporter that it is going to be very difficult for Katungi to survive extradition.
This sources explained dealing in drug trafficking and illegal firearms was the reason President Trump allowed the operation which resulted into the capture of Nicolas Maduro and president of Venezuela and his wife Cilia Flores who are facing criminal trial on American soil.
Anguzu’s application is based on the indictment filed in the United States Courts where Katungi is accused, together with Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga, of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, allegedly knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the drugs would be unlawfully imported into the United States.
The four are also accused of conspiring to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in furtherance of a drug trafficking offence, and of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators allege that from at least September 2022, the suspects conspired to supply military-grade weapons to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful transnational criminal organisations.
The alleged weapons included machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, night-vision equipment, anti-aircraft weapons and surface-to-air missile systems.
U.S. authorities allege that the suspects believed the cartel intended to use the weapons to facilitate large-scale cocaine trafficking into the United States.
On February 20, 2025, the CJNG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
According to the indictment, Mirchev allegedly recruited Asumo to obtain a fraudulent End-User Certificate (EUC) from an African country to conceal the intended destination of the weapons. Asumo is then alleged to have recruited Katungi, who in turn recruited Mwapinga.
Prosecutors allege the group obtained an end-user certificate from Tanzania authorising the importation of AK-47 rifles. Using that documentation, Mirchev and others allegedly exported a test shipment of 50 AK-47 assault rifles, magazines and ammunition from Bulgaria, intending that the weapons would ultimately reach the CJNG.
The indictment further alleges that the group later planned to supply weapons worth approximately Shs224bn including anti-aircraft systems and drones, while using falsified arms control documentation to disguise the true end user.
Court records also indicate that Mirchev had previously been implicated in supplying arms to convicted international arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
