The General Court Martial today declined to entertain a request by Nixon Agasiirwe, a senior police officer, to allow him be tried separately from his co-accused.
In his ruling, Lt.Gen. Andrew Guti, the chairman of the court, said there is no evidence that if Agasiirwe is tried together with the other co-accused it will lead to prejudice.
"There is no evidence that it would affect the flow of his trial as alleged by his lawyer,"Lt.Gen. Guti said before dismissing the application
SSP Agasiirwe, who was the commander of police Special Operations Unit, is accused together with Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma(Commandant of Professional Standard Unit) former commander of Police Special Operations, Sgt Abel Tumukunde ( Flying Squad) Assistant Superintendent of Police Magada (Crime Intelligence) and Faisal Katende(Flying Squad) for kidnap of Lt.Joel Mutabazi before repatriating him back to Rwanda.
However, through his lawyers led by Frank Kanduho, Agasiirwe had asked to be allowed to be tried separately from his co- accused for a number of reasons.
"He is more than ready to take plea but there is likely to be prejudice from the other accused whom he wants to produce as his witnesses, "Kanduho told court.
He had argued that it would prejudice his defence if the people that are accused together with Agasiirwe are at the same time witnesses in a similar case.
