The Crimes War Division of the High Court leadership has sent to the suspected founding commander of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Sheikh Jamil Mukulu Kyagulanyi a list of over one hundred names of lawyers who have applied to represent him on State brief.
According to highly placed sources at Luzira Upper Maximum Security Prison Luzira, the list was delivered to Mukulu on Tuesday morning so as to select and confirm to the judiciary the lawyers of his own choice to represent him and other co-accused when their criminal trial kicks off next month.
In the pre-trail, Mukulu has been represented by a number of lawyers who have included criminal law giants Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, Medard Lubega Ssegona, Asuman Basalirwa, Samuel Muyizzi, Erias Nalukoola Luyimbazi and late Anthony Wameri.
It is a requirement for the state to provide legal representation to a suspect facing criminal charges which can result in life or death sentences as Mukulu and his co-accused who were charged with offences related to murder, terrorism, attempted murder.
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Alaka and Ocheng are criminal law giants who have saved different suspects from being convicted and among them were the suspects in the 2010 twin Kampala bombings, Adam Kalungi, a boyfriend to fallen Butaleja women legislator Cellina Nebanda and many others.
They however failed to save Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Thomas Kweyero.
According to Court records, three justices of the Crimes War Division of the High Court are set to preside over the trial and will start by determining the applications filed by Mukulu challenging his entire trial citing the violation of his human rights claiming that he was badly tortured by security state operatives in Nalufenya police station where he was first detained.
Counsel Lino Anguzo together with Thomas Jatiko and Joseph Kyomuhendo are expected to lead the prosecution team and have paraded a number of witnesses who include doctors, victims of the deadly Kichwamba Technical College attack and many others to testify against the accused persons.
Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania in 2015 after spending years on run.
He was then extradited back to Uganda after losing the extradition trial in Tanzania where he was claiming that Museveni wanted to persecute him because he was a political opponent against his government.
However, the Ugandan State assured Tanzanian government that the accused person was going to be charged with only criminal offences which are not related to politics.
State claims that Mukulu was the mastermind behind the assassination of top Muslim clerics, security personnel in different places in the country especially in Busoga and government officials.
Mukulu on the other hand rubbished the allegations insisting that Museveni is just persecuting him because of his religion.
