Bobi Wine: "Gen Gutti lacks training, legal depth to preside over military court"
The leader of National Unity Platform(NUP) Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has lashed out at Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the chairman of Military Court Martial for being unfair after sentencing a NUP supporter to eight months in prison.
Gutti sentenced Saanya Muhdyn Kakooza, Kyagulanyi supporter to 8 months in prison on charges of contempt of the kangaroo Court at Makindye.
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The sentence follows an incident that occurred at the end of a military court session on February 15 when Kakooza protested against the year-long detention without trial of several supporters of the NUP.
It is alleged that Kakooza and other NUP supporters were abducted from different parts of the country shortly after the 2021 elections, tortured, and then secretly remanded to Kitalya Prison where they remain to date.
Kyagulanyi said this is political persecution, and Kakooza was well within his constitutional rights.
"For all intents and purposes, Gen. Gutti is a lay man. He has no credible legal training whatsoever, yet he presides over a court that claims to have original jurisdiction over any and all offences no matter their gravity; and routinely issues some of the harshest sentences ordinarily reserved for judicial officers with 10+ years of legal practice," said Kyagulanyi in a brief statement.
While executing his duties, Kyagulanyi claimed that Gutti exudes an acute lack of conception of the most basic tenets of the right to a fair hearing, adding that when lawyers cite for him the law, he jails or threatens to jail them!
"Men like Gutti who do not possess the qualifications of even the lowest-ranking judicial officer should not purport to decide the fate of the hundreds of citizens that appear in courts seeking justice," he said.
Yesterday Kyagulanyi and some of his supporters visited Kakooza at Luzira Prison where he was transferred.
Kakooza told Kyagulanyi that several attempts were made during the medical examination to coerce him to confess that he is a drug addict who was under the influence of marijuana when he protested before the Court Martial, and that promises were made to free him if he made the confession.
"Saanya remains strong despite the jail sentence. He sends revolutionary greetings to all of you comrades and implores you not to give up on our common struggle to return Uganda back to democratic governance. Saanya is a hero to our struggle and I have told him as much. I have assured him that he has our respect and admiration for the courage and determination he has exhibited throughout," he said.
