The High Court Civil Division in Kampala has ordered the army to produce former police Crime Intelligence commander, Col. Atwooki Ndahura.
Col. Ndahura was arrested two weeks ago in an army swoop that cracked the whip on a number of cronies of former Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura.
However, Ndahura’s wife, Sarah Ndahura dragged the army and the Attorney General to court seeking for a harbeus corpus against her husband.
In her suit, the wife says since the arrest on June 11 from Peace Corner Hotel in Masindi town by the army, family members have been denied access to Col.Atwooki Ndahura.
“He was on June 12 transferred to Makindye military barracks but since then, he has never been produced to court or charged in any court of competent jurisdiction,” the wife says in her affidavit.
“Lawyers, family and personal doctor have been denied access to him which is a violation of his rights.”
Col. Ndahura’s wife says they have suffered after being denied their right to personal enjoyment together with their family member on top of psychological torture onto them.
In her affidavit, Sarah Ndahura says her husband’s right to personal liberty has been denied since his arrest and subsequent detention without being arraigned in court.
“It is now 15 days, way above the permissible time of 48 hours by the constitution to have a suspect produced to court.”
In her ruling, Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court Civil Division agreed with the reasons cited by Col. Atwooki’s wife saying there is no justification for the continued detention without trial.
“This is a proper case and court accordingly issues a harbeus corpus to be returned on July 2,”Ssekaana ruled on Tuesday morning.
The army in March recalled Col. Atwooki who had earlier served as a commander in the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) turned Special Forces Command (SFC) from police where he had been serving as the Director in charge of Crime Intelligence.
He was in 2015 appointed the head the Crime Intelligence which had been just formed in the wave of a spate of violent crimes in the country which had been attributed to lack of intelligence by the police.
He was later on June 11 arrested by the army in Masindi before being detained at Makindye.
Col.Ndahura was arrested together with Gen,Kayihura and a number of former police commanders including the former cyber-crime head Richard Ndaboine, the former Flying Squad commander Herbert Muhangi, former Professional Standards Unit Commander Good Mwesigwa and Lt Col Peter Musherure, the former deputy police director of crime intelligence among others.
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