Chaotic re-arrest of Kaweesi murder suspects was below the belt- Deputy Chief justice

The Deputy Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny-Dollo has said security agencies should have done better than the chaotic scenes caused during the re-arrest of the Kaweesi murder suspects on Wednesday.

Four people including Jibril Kalyango, Yusuf Mugerwa, Joshua Kyambadde and Siraje Nyanzi were re-arrested by security shortly after release on bail by the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kololo.

In a scene, only similar to those seen in American movies where the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrests suspected terrorists, the security operatives at once grabbed guns from their van before pouncing on the Toyota Noah in which four people were.

The Deputy Chief Justice in his statement has said the four suspects were wantonly, crudely and brutally re-arrested at the precincts of the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kololo after release on bail.

“This high-handedness in the re-arrest of persons released by Courts is a direct affront to the much cherished rule of law in Uganda,”Owiny- Dollo said.

“The continued rearrests of suspects in the precincts of the Court, yet again, by security agencies is a sad reminder that more still needs to be done to instill the importance of the rule of law in the institutions charged with keeping law and order.

During the re-arrest, one of the lawyers, James Mubiru, who was driving the vehicle in which the accused were, was also arrested before being detained at Jinja road police station.

According to the Deputy Chief Justice, an advocate is an officer of Court and must be accorded protection when he or she is executing professional services to accused persons or litigants in Courts of law.

“Such blatant actions, as this one, sadly leads to people’s loss of faith in the Courts of Judicature, which can only result in grave ramifications where people choose not to come to the Courts of law; but to take the law into their hands.”

He urged that where courts have made decisions considered by any party to be wrong, the proper course of action is to seek redress within the law but not re-arrest as it happened on Wednesday.

Dollo said actions like one manifested on Wednesday disregard the independence of the judiciary which is contrary to the protection of the judiciary enshrined under Article 128 of the Constitution.

“We call upon security agencies to refrain from flagrant abuse of the law and hope the perpetrators of such acts are brought to book as a clear and unmistakable statement that actions such as this one cannot be tolerable.”

The army spokesperson, Brig. Richard Karemire on Thursday said the four people were re-arrested in a joint security operation because they have other pending cases.