Suspects charged alongside Bobi Wine seek release on bail
President Museveni's lead car that was stoned in Arua on August 14, 2018. Uganda’s Gulu High Court is August 27, 2018 expected to hear several bail applications for 33 suspects who are accused of stoning President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The application cannot be handled by the chief magistrates’ court where the treason charges were read.
- This is because the court lacks jurisdiction to handle capital offenses.
- All the suspects are currently on remand at Gulu Central Prison.
Uganda’s Gulu High Court is Monday expected to hear several bail applications for 33 suspects who are accused of stoning President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade following the Arua by-election chaos recently.
Some of the suspects facing treason charges are Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, Arua Municipality MP-elect Kassiano Wadri, Paul Mwiru (Jinja East), Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo) and Mike Mabikke (ex Makindye East MP).
All the suspects are currently on remand at Gulu Central Prison.
The bail application is expected to be heard by Gulu resident judge Stephen Mubiru starting at 9am.
JURISDICTION
The application cannot be handled by the chief magistrates’ court where the treason charges were read out to them last week due to lack of jurisdiction to handle capital offenses.
Speaking to Daily Monitor on Sunday, two lawyers representing the accused, Mr Asuman Basalirwa and Mr Nicholas Opiyo, in generalisation, cited some of the grounds that the defence team will raise in a bid to have their clients released on bail.
They include the constitutional right to apply for bail, poor health, advanced age, no past criminal records and the presumption of innocence as stated by the Constitution.
Mr Basalirwa said among those charged is an elderly man who had travelled from Lira to Arua on a business trip but was at Pacific Hotel when the chaos erupted.
