Let’s use court judgments to fight torture of suspects

Last week, the Court of Appeal in a landmark decision ordered for the termination of criminal offenses against two suspects in a trial.

The court found out that one of the suspects, Patrick Mugisha, had been tortured by a flying squad police officer, Sgt Joshua Oumo, while in detention at Central Police Station in Kampala. “The trial of the appellant (lawyer Paul Wanyoto), and Patrick Mugisha in criminal case no. 75 of 2019 is a nullity for the blatant violations and infringement of the accused person’s non derogable rights and freedoms from torture, cruel, inhumane and other human rights and freedoms guaranteed under article 23, 24, 42 and 44 (a) of the constitution,” ruled the court led by Justice Fredrick Egonda-Ntende.

Court documents showed that Sgt Oumo used to insert sticks tied with rubber band between Mr Mugisha’s fingers, in a punishment commonly known as baibbuli, as he coerced him to surrender his land title.

The landmark ruling of the court now sets a precedent that once a suspect in a criminal case proves that he/she was tortured in due course, can invoke this decision of court to have his/ her trial terminated.

Suspects like Kakwenza Rukirabashaija who have claimed torture in the hands of secutity operatives, can now take advantage of this decision and have their criminal trial terminated before Buganda Road Court.

Likewise, those who were tortured prior of after the 2021 General Election with some being persecuted for their contrary views and are still languishing in various detention centres across the country, should too take advantage. But the big question now is whether this useful decision won’t remain on the shelves just like similar decisions on torture.

About six years ago, the Constitutional Court ruled that errant police officers can and should be sued for torture in their individual capacities even, when on official duty unlike before when they were protected for accounting for their alleged actions since the legal position then said litigants could only sue the Attorney General. The Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012 states that a person who performs any act of torture commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for 15 years or to a fine of 350 currency points (which is equivalent to Shs7m). Statistics from the recent annual report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission show that most of the torture complaints were against the police with a total of 354, translating into 54 percent, followed by the UPDF with 135 complaints, representing 21 percent.

Complaints against private individuals came third with 113, representing 17 percent. The statistics also showed that there was a 13 percent increase in the number of torture complaints against the police from 303 cases in 2020 to 354 in 2021. To that effect, we implore the legal activists to bring to light some of these important decisions so that those tortured by security can use them to seek redress.

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