Treason case: State not ready to prosecute Bobi Wine, accomplices

GULU. The Gulu Magistrate Court has again adjourned the treason case against Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine and 34 other suspects due to unfinished police investigations.
Mr Kyagulanyi, Arua Municipality Member of Parliament Kasiano Wadri, and 26 others on Monday appeared before Grade One Magistrate Isaac Imoran Kintu for mention of their case.

The state contends that the accused and others still at large pelted stones at one of President Museveni’s car, smashing its hind windscreen on August 13 during Arua Municipality by election campaigns.
Prosecution led by Mr Paul Weponde on Monday told court that they were not ready to proceed with the case because police are still gathering evidence against the suspects.
“My lord as usual, the police is not yet done with the investigation, we pray for adjournment,” Mr Weponde told Court.

One of the defence lawyers, Mr Henry Komakech Kilama however said the accused persons are incurring a lot of expenses in travelling to attend the court sessions since most of them stay in Kampala and Arua District.
He asked court to compel the state to expedite investigation adding that a lengthy period of adjournment be given to them [state] to wind up with their investigations.

Mr Kilama also asked court to issue fresh summon against officers in charge of Criminal Investigation Departments [CIDs] in Arua and Gulu Districts to appear in court and explain about his clients’ (suspects’) property which include vehicles, IPads, phones, laptops and money still in police custody.

Earlier in October, Magistrate Yunus Ndiwalana who had been handling the treason case had ordered the CIDs to appear before the court to explain why they are still holding the said property which were allegedly being used by SFC soldiers to track and con money from unsuspecting persons.
Magistrate Kintu, who presided over the case in his ruling concurred with the defence team and tasked prosecution team to speed up their investigation.

“I therefore urge the prosecution team to speed up inquiries. I also observed that most of the accused persons come from outside of this jurisdiction and in fact none of them comes from within the locality of this jurisdiction,” he said.

Mr Kintu also issued criminal summons against six of the accused persons who were absent in court and tasked them to appear in the next court sitting. Those who were not present in court included, Paul Mwiru [Jinja East MP], Gerald Karuhanga [Ntungamo Municipality MP] who were away for official duties in Burundi, Gamba Tumusime, Charles Atiku, Shaban Atiku and Wilberforce Tamale.
He adjourned the case to January 10, 2019 when the accused are expected to appear for further mention of their case adding that he needs sometime to acquaint himself with the facts of the case since he is handling it for the first time.

We won’t return to court
Speaking to Journalists at the Gulu High Court premises, Mr Wadri vowed that him and other suspects will not to return to Gulu High Court beyond February next year if police fails to present evidence in court.
“We are counting the number of months we have reported here, should we clock and hit the six months to report here and the police continue to dilly-dally that they are not yet through with investigation, we shall use the force required and provided within the law to stop coming to court,” Mr Wadri said.

“If they have any justifiable reason, they will find us wherever they got us from because the law is very clear; within six months if you have no satisfactory evidence to adduce for further committal to high court for trial then we have no business in court,” he added.

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