Human Rights activists in Kasese have expressed deep concern over what they described as prisoners’ ‘undeserving’ prolonged remand periods, especially for prisoners charged with capital offences.
This follows an abortive High Court session that had been scheduled to commence on November 21 but failed after the High Judge failed to show up.
“We are not happy about what happened on Monday [November 21] because some of the criminal suspects whose cases appeared in the Cause list for the High Court session have over stayed on remand and this is against their rights to justice,” Godfrey Kiwede, a Kasese based coordinator with Center For Hope In and After Prison-Uganda, said.
The Cause list had a total of 46 accused persons charged with offences ranging from murder, defilement and robbery, most of them on remand at Katojo prison in Kabarole district, who had been ferried to the Chief Magistrates Court at Rukoki in Kasese Municipality for their cases to be heard
During the previous week, announcements had been run over the local FM radios about the High Court session, prompting relatives and friends of the accused persons to travel various distances to attend.
Both prosecution and defence counsels, some of them said to have travelled from as far as Kampala, had also assembled ready for business to start.
However, at about lunch time, the Kasese based Chief Magistrate Joshua Maruk invited the counsels and the gathering to the Court Hall, announced that the court session had been postponed indefinitely and apologized for the inconveniences that had been caused.
“A High Court session had been scheduled for November 1 but on November 13, I received communication from the High Court Registrar in Kampala that it had been rescheduled to commence on November 21”, Maruk told the counsels and the irked gathering.
He said that on November 15, the Cause list with 43 cases for hearing was also released and publicized. Justice Mike Chibita was to preside over the session.
“But unfortunately, late yesterday [November 20] I received a call from Kampala saying that the High Court session had been postponed until further notice. I regret the inconveniences”, Maruk said.
Maruk did not talk about the reasons behind the indefinite postponement.
But an insider at the Chief Magistrates Court, speaking on condition that his identity won’t be publicized, said: “The problem is money. The money has not reached on our local account here [Kasese] and we have not received any explanation.”
