Private lawyers and the Director of Public Prosecutions have reached an agreement that will see the latter take over prosecution of the case in which the Inspector General of Police and 7 police commanders are charged with brutality.
A group of 5 people through their lawyers led by Abudalla Kiwanuka and Daniel Walyemera constituted a private criminal prosecution against the police boss and his senior commanders at the Makindye Chief Magistrates court but the office of the DPP sought to take over the matter.
According to the arguments by the DPP, he is the only person mandated to prosecute criminal matters. He thus sought a revision of the decision by the Makindye court to have him apply formally to take over prosecution of the case.
On Tuesday afternoon, the private lawyers told High Court Justice Joseph Mulangira that they had reached an agreement to leave the DPP take over the prosecution of the case adding that this is provided for in the Constitution.
“We have discussed with our colleagues from the DPP’s office and agreed that they take over prosecution of this case as enshrined in article 120 of the Constitution. We (private lawyers) will be monitoring closely the matter,” Kiwanuka told court on Tuesday.
Judge Clashes with Lawyers
Earlier, Justice Mulangira clashed with the private lawyers including Abdalla iwanuka, Daniel Walyemera and Martin Muhumuza who said they were representing the complainants (those allegedly beaten by police).
The judge called out the complainants Andrew Ssebitosi, Joseph Kaddu plus Rogers Ddiba and when they rose, they informed him that they had no lawyer representing them.
The trio had last week told a news conference they had withdrawn from the case after being forced to make statements pinning police yet they had never been beaten.
This prompted the judge to demand that the lawyers explain whether or not they had instructions to represent the complainants in the case.
“I have documents signed by those 3 people giving us instructions to represent them in the matter before court,” Kiwanuka told the judge.
However the judge insisted that the clients had out of their will told court that no one should represent them adding that the 3 lawyers were in court illegally. This angered Kiwanuka who interjected.
“My Lord, this matter should be taken serious. I am an advocate who was given instructions to proceed and I did not see any document asking me to withdraw from the matter, ”the lawyer from Lukwago and Company Advocates stressed.
The matter was however resolved when the Judge later ruled that the 3 lawyers were free to be present because they had an interest in the matter.