Law Society to offer legal aid to brutality victims
Mr Francis Girama
KAMPALA- The law society has promised to deal with specific incidents of police brutality by offering free legal services to those wronged, a move aimed at bringing the culprits to book.
Law Society President Francis Gimara yesterday said the professional body that brings together more than 2,000 advocates in the country will “show its teeth”, following increasing incidents of police impunity, which have been condemned.
“ The Uganda Law Society is concerned just like any other entity about the growing trend of police brutality against the citizens. I think as the society, we are moving away from just mere issuing of statements to offering legal aid so that those who have suffered at the hands of brutality can have legal redress,” he said, adding: “So all those who have suffered at the hands of the police brutality, should come to us for legal aid services”.
Likewise, the law society has also vowed to implement the recommendations of the Constitutional Court land mark judgment that held that errant police officers should now be held individually responsible for the crimes committed by them unlike before when the Attorney General, would take on their liability as the chief government legal advisor.
The change of tactics by the professional body was prompted by the continued impunity exhibited by the police in the past one month against Dr Kizza Besigye’s supporters.
The latest of this impunity came at the weekend following a video clip that went viral, showing a police patrol vehicle intentionally swerving towards the pavement and knocking down one of Dr Besigye’s supporters in Kyebando, Kampala, on the day he was released from prison on bail.
To make matters worse, as the victim was struggling to get to his feet, a plain-clothed operative believed to be part of the police, kicked him in the exact place the car had knocked him down.
Following the latest and unimaginable brutality of the police patrol car knocking down Dr Besigye’s fan, the law society, according to Mr Gimara, wants particularly the commander who was in charge of the operations on that fateful day of July 12, the driver of the patrol vehicle and the security operative who kicked the victim to be the first culprits to face their legal wrath.
