By URN<\/p>\n
The General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala, on Tuesday rejected an application by lawyers representing Dr. Kiiza Besigye and Hajji Obeid Lutale Kamulegeya. The lawyers had argued that the chargesheet containing new charges of treachery against their clients was defective.<\/p>\n
Court Chairman Brigadier General Freeman Mugabe ruled that the extradition process was lawful and that the court has the authority to try the accused under Ugandan law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no defect in the chargesheet because the accused are charged under Ugandan law, the UPDF Act, which clearly defines defense forces to mean Uganda People\u2019s Defence forces,\u201d Mugabe said.<\/p>\n
Mugabe advised Besigye and his co-accused to plead to the new treachery charge.<\/p>\n
This development follows Besigye and his co-accused declining to plead to previous treachery charges, citing concerns about the court\u2019s jurisdiction to try civilians for offenses allegedly committed outside Uganda.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the prosecution introduced a new charge and a new suspect, Captain Dennis Ola, a serving officer with the UPDF Armory Brigade.<\/p>\n
Besigye\u2019s lawyers had argued that the court lacks territorial jurisdiction to try offenses committed beyond Uganda\u2019s borders, noting that the chargesheet alleges the offenses occurred in Greece, Switzerland, and Kenya.<\/p>\n
They also disputed the legality of Besigye\u2019s arrest in Kenya and subsequent extradition to Uganda, claiming it did not follow due process.<\/p>\n
The defense team requested that the court strike out the chargesheet due to these defects, but the state maintains that interstate arrangements were used to return the suspects to Uganda for trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By URN The General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala, on Tuesday rejected an application by lawyers representing Dr. Kiiza Besigye and Hajji Obeid Lutale Kamulegeya. The lawyers had argued that the chargesheet containing new charges of treachery against their clients was defective. Court Chairman Brigadier General Freeman Mugabe ruled that the extradition process was lawful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8727,"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-8720","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\/8720","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=8720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8728,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8720\/revisions\/8728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}