George Musisi and Kawempe North legislator Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola found a hard time to convince the political prisoners rotting in prison that the National Unity Platform (NUP) legal team is doing whatever they can to rescue them.
The prisoners lost their cool after Justice Duncan Gaswaga of the Crimes War Division of the High Court adjourned their trial to first entertain the human rights enforcement application filed by one of the accused persons Umar Magala challenging his trial.
In his application, filed by himself, Magala claimed that in 2021 after the general elections, he was badly tortured by security operatives who pressed him hard to accept the terrorism charges and implicate his party principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) on having a clandestine plan to use force to overthrow President Museveni’s government.
In his affidavit to support his application, Magala who is aspiring to be elected as a Councillor for Kawempe North to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) claimed that he spent more than 48 hours without being produced in Court as the Constitution commands, was denied access to his lawyers, family and medical doctors acts which violated his fundamental rights.
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Justice Gaswaga, told Court that he cannot proceed with the hearing as it was expected because the Constitution commands him that whenever at any stage of the criminal trial, a human rights violation issue is raised, he has to first hold the proceedings and entertain the matter first.
Justice Gaswaga directed Magala to serve the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka and Justice Jane Frances Abodo the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) who are the respondents in the application. As a result, he adjourned the matter to 27 for mention and asked for confirmation on whether all the parties had filed the necessary documents before the hearing of the application kicks off.
Magala’s co-accused were shocked to learn that he filed such a fundamental application which touches his constitutional rights without considering them well knowing that they were also tortured.
“Truth be told, you people abandoned us in prison. Magala you even filed that application which can save you from this persecution without considering us because for you, your friends and family members helped you to secure court bail,” one of the suspects was heard furiously telling Magala.
Magala was saved by Nalukoola who told him that he is the one going to argue out his application because he didn’t involve them when filing it. However, Magala defended himself that he filed the application to survive persecution. He further insisted that he has been telling them to file the said application but they kept on ignoring him.
As the suspects moved out of the dock, they furiously accused Nalukoola and Musisi of abandoning them that is why they are not on the same page in the fight against their prosecution. They wandered why they are no longer visiting them in prison and even stopped picking their phone calls.
“You told us that the president (Bobi Wine) appointed the other man (Jonathan Elotu) to replace counsel Anthony Wameri as our lead lawyer but he has never visited us. We only meet him in Court and he neither gives us time to discuss our case, nor pick our phone calls, now what are we going to do,” another suspect said.
Musisi pleaded with them to calm down while explaining to them that they are working on their case and the reason why Elote the party’s Chief Legal Officer is not picking their phone calls is because he is busy handling a lot of party issues like trying to stop the law that President Museveni wanted to use to ban activities of their party.
He assured them that they are going to get an independent lawyer to follow their matter and Nalukoola’s legal assistant was recommended to handle them because for him he is not always busy.
Even though Musisi managed to explain to the accused persons, this website has established that a number of political prisoners are bitter with the way NUP lawyers are handling their cases. They are wondering why Bobi Wine is not hiring serious lawyers like Dr Kizza Besigye did
One of the suspects told us that lawyers like Shamim Malende and Nalukoola are using their persecution to score political points that is why they are failing to file simple applications like the one Magala filed for himself.
“Thats why some of us are regretting why we didn’t accept minister Balaam Barugahare’s deal of entering an understanding with Museveni in which we would be pardoned like Olivier Lutaaya and others did,” a suspect told this website at Court on Tuesday.
Other prisoners like Arthur Ndawula decided to accept the charges of terrorism and treason after writing several letters to Bobi Wine and David Lewis Rubongoya the party Secretary General who declined to respond to them.
But even though they accepted the charges, they are still in prison because the.Court Martial was abolished by the Supreme Court before their deal was fully executed.
However, one of NUP lawyers told us that the reason why they ignored the letters fro. Ndawula group was that they were scared of them.
They were not personally known to Bobi Wine even though they insist that they always met him at his Magere home.
