Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Excessive Court docket in Kampala has granted a ask by attorney Eron Kiiza to retrieve his passport to allow him to skedaddle in a foreign nation for medical treatment. Prison Division Desire David Matovu on Wednesday dominated in favour of Kiiza, stating that he is never any longer a flight threat.
The identify significant that Kiiza had beforehand travelled to Kenya the usage of a non everlasting skedaddle myth and voluntarily returned to Uganda, demonstrating compliance with court docket processes. Justice Matovu emphasised that the preliminary directive by Justice Michael Elubu requiring Kiiza to deposit his passport with the court docket as a situation of bail changed into no longer punitive.
“In the final diagnosis, the court docket finds that the negate to deposit the applicant’s passport with the court docket changed into no longer punitive in nature, and attributable to this the discovered Desire offered for the open of the an identical at any time when the applicant supposed to skedaddle,” dominated Justice Matovu.
He added that the other bail prerequisites imposed by Justice Elubu — at the side of money bail and sureties — were ample to guarantee Kiiza’s return to face his allure proceedings. The court docket has now directed that upon return from his unspecified duration of treatment, Kiiza must redeposit his passport with the Excessive Court docket.
When asked in regards to the medical facility he would perhaps well be visiting, Kiiza said the tips changed into deepest. Final month, Kiiza filed a proper petition sooner than the Excessive Court docket attempting for the open of his passport, which had been retained following his open from Kitalya Penal advanced, the put he spent simply about three months on the orders of the now-defunct Total Court docket Martial.
Kiiza changed into convicted of contempt of court docket by the navy tribunal on January 7, 2025, and sentenced to 9 months in penal advanced. Alternatively, he appealed the conviction and changed into later granted bail by Justice Elubu, who imposed a money bail of 20 million shillings, required non-money sureties of 50 million shillings, and directed him to resign his passport.
In his plea sooner than Justice Matovu, Kiiza said he changed into tortured and illegally detained following his arrest on January 7, 2025, while representing jailed opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye and Hajji Obeid Lutaale. On the time, the duo changed into facing prices of unlawful possession of navy weapons and ammunition. In response to court docket recordsdata, as Kiiza approached the Total Court docket Martial to indicate his purchasers, he changed into blocked and arrested by navy police officers while within the line of accountability as a upright practitioner.
He extra instructed the court docket that he changed into held for 86 days at Kitalya Penal advanced sooner than his open on April 4, 2025. On April 24 and May maybe maybe maybe 7, he wrote to the court docket requesting the return of his passport to allow skedaddle for medical treatment, relaxation, and restoration, as suggested by his medical doctors. Kiiza argued that the prolong in retrieving his passport had worsened his trauma and disrupted his restoration belief.
He furthermore disclosed that he dangers missing a a must-occupy medical-linked plug to Costa Rica in early July 2025, which he described as a part of his healing route of. In the meantime, Dr. Besigye and Hajji Lutaale remain in custody, now facing treason prices within the civilian courts following a Supreme Court docket ruling that barred the trial of civilians sooner than navy tribunals.
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