Red Pepper directors halt bail application at High court

News

The lead counsel of the legal team representing Red Pepper editors and directors who are in prison has said his clients have not supported a move to take the bail application to the High Court.

Max Mutabingwa, the lead counsel said on Tuesday when Buganda road Chief Magistrate James Ereemye Mawanda deferred the bail application ruling to December 19 said he would take the application to High Court to secure their bail.James Ereemye Mawanda deferred the ruling saying he needed time to review volumes of documents presented in court by the state prosecutor and suspects' lawyers.

Mutabingwa said delaying to give ruling on the application amounted to denial of bail.

He made it clear that his clients were not comfortable with the High Court application fearing that it would also dilly-dally like the Buganda Road Court application.

"I met my clients who said I should halt the process of going to the High Court. We are meeting on Tuesday to have a final discussion on the matter. They were not comfortable with going to High Court. They think the file will take long time like in the Magistrate Court," Mutabingwa said.

"As a lawyer, I represent my clients. You can't make a decision without permission from your clients," he further said.Mutabingwa said bail application is a personal liberty and it should be handled expeditiously.

Five Red Pepper Publications Limited directors and three editors have been in prison since November 21st. They were arrested following police raid of their offices in Namanve, along Jinja Road.

The founding directors are; Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Patrick Mugumya, Johnson Musinguzi, Richard Tusiime and James Mujuni, and editors are Ben Byarabaha, Richard Kintu and Francis Tumusiime.

The raid and arrest was triggered by a story published in The Red Pepper issue of November 20 indicating that President Yoweri Museveni was plotting to overthrow his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame.