The High Court in Kampala yesterday started hearing bail applications of 50suspected capital offenders in a special session that will end on Friday this week.
The suspects include the jailed Nakawa Division MP Michael Kabaziguruka who is facing treacherycharges before the General Court Martial. Justice Yasin Nyanzi is presiding over the session. MP Kabaziguruka will appear before the judge on Thursday for the hearing of his bail application.
Another key suspect is a Makerere University professor Christopher Bakuneta who is accused of raping his student in April this year. Mr Bakuneta, a lecturer at the department of Natural Sciences at Makerere, yesterday presented three sureties and prayed to Justice Nyanzi to release him on a non-cash bail.
“Your honour I have spent five months on remand at Luzira prison without pay. I cannot pay a cash bail,” Mr Bakuneta submitted.
The same court has also set tomorrow for the hearing of an application by Ruhinda County MP Capt. Donozio Kahonda (retired) who is seeking the High Court to quash criminal proceedings instituted against him in Jinja Magistrate’s Court in Octoberlast year.
Kahonda is accused of forgery and uttering false documents at the Military Academy in Jinja district in November 2001. He denies the charges.
Other suspects who have applied for bail are on charges of murder, aggravated defilement and robbery. They told court yesterday that they had spent more than three years on remand without trial.
There was tension before court yesterday morning as relatives came to stand sureties for aggravated defilement suspect Suleiman Mayanja. However prison authorities from both Luzira and Kigo prisons denied having Mayanja in their custody.
This promoted Justice Nyanzi to issue a directive ordering Kigo prison administration where the relatives last saw Mayanja in June this year to produce him before court today without fail.
Hearing of the suspects’ bail applications continues today.
At the end of the special session on Friday, Justice Nyanzi is expected to deliver his verdict on whether to allow or reject their bail applications.
By Juliet Kikongo/Monitor
