{"id":8457,"date":"2024-11-20T13:02:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T13:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/?p=8457"},"modified":"2024-11-20T13:07:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T13:07:39","slug":"court-martial-adjourns-besigye-case-over-legal-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/2024\/11\/20\/court-martial-adjourns-besigye-case-over-legal-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Court-Martial Adjourns Besigye Case Over Legal Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Johnson Kanyesige<\/p>\n<p>Veteran opposition politician Dr. Kizza Besigye and co-accused Hajji Obedi Rutale, 65, were arraigned before the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala, on November 20, 2024. They face four counts of security-related offenses and unlawful possession of firearms, allegedly committed while at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi, Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>Both accused persons pleaded not guilty to all charges. The court, however, remanded them until December 2, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Besigye arrived at the court in a convoy of three Military Police Vehicles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/my-husband-held-in-military-jail-in-kampala-byanyima\/\"><strong>Daily Monitor<\/strong>\u00a0reported that<\/a>\u00a0the former FDC president was reported missing in Nairobi where he had travelled to attend a book launch of former Kenya\u2019s Justice Minister, Martha Karua.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the Uganda People\u2019s Defense Forces (UPDF) general court-martial adjourned for 15 minutes to determine whether to proceed with reading charges against Rtd. Colonel Dr. Kiiza Besigye in the absence of his lawyer. The court-martial chairperson, Brigadier Freeman Mugabe, announced the decision after Besigye declined representation from state-appointed lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>Besigye was arraigned before the Makindye-based military court earlier this morning together with Haji Obeid Lutaale. During the session, he challenged the jurisdiction of the military court, arguing that, as a retired officer, he is not subject to military law.<\/p>\n<p>Following his objection, Brigadier Mugabe temporarily adjourned proceedings to deliver a ruling on the matter.\u00a0\u00a0At the time of adjournment, the state had not yet disclosed the charges against Besigye, who is a four-time former presidential candidate. Reports indicate that he was apprehended over the weekend in Nairobi, Kenya, where he had traveled to attend the launch of a book authored by Martha Karua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Johnson Kanyesige Veteran opposition politician Dr. Kizza Besigye and co-accused Hajji Obedi Rutale, 65, were arraigned before the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala, on November 20, 2024. They face four counts of security-related offenses and unlawful possession of firearms, allegedly committed while at Riverside Apartments in Nairobi, Kenya. Both accused persons pleaded not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8464,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8457\/revisions\/8464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}