Court orders immediate transfer of businessman from military detention

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Justice Musa Ssekaana has ordered for the immediate transfer of Entebbe businessman Bruno Francis Bazibu, from Makindye military barracks to civil prison. He made the ruling following a successful application filed by Bazibu’s family led by his wife Phionah Namazzi.

She ran to the High court after officers from the Special Forces Command arrested her husband at Okello House in Kampala on October 31st, 2020 on allegations of illegal ammunition. According to Namazzi, they searched for her husband in several detention centers in vain. As a result, they petitioned the High court civil division on November 17, 2020, to compel the state to produce Babizu dead or alive.

Subsequently, Justice Emmanuel Baguma directed the Attorney General and security agencies to produce Bazibu before the court on November 30, 2020. The State defied the orders only to produce him before the UPDF General Court Martial chaired by Lt. General Andrew Gutti on December 10th, 2020 for illegal possession of ammunition.

The military court heard that while at Bugembe village in Busiro, Wakiso district on November 11, 2020, Bazibu was found in illegal possession of one AK 47 bullet, which is ordinarily the monopoly or armed forces. He pleaded not guilty to the changes and was remanded to Kitalya prison.

However, on December 26th, 2020, Bazibu’s wife Namazzi went to Kitalya to visit him but he wasn’t there. The prison authorities allegedly informed her that Bazibu had been picked by soldiers and taken to Makindye military barracks. As a result, Namazzi through her lawyer Retired Major Ronald Iduuli decided to sue the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Prisons, and the Chief of Military Intelligence in 2021.

Namazzi asked the high court to order the respondents to release her husband immediately on grounds that he is in illegal detention or order his immediate transfer to civil prison. She asked the court to order the respondents to compensate her husband for illegal detention.

However, the State Attorney Mark Muwonge who represented the Attorney General asked the court to dismiss the case on grounds that Bazibu was subjected to military law because he was found in unlawful possession of ammunition, which is a monopoly of defense forces. The state also argued that there was intelligence information about the safety of Bazibu at Kitalya prison, upon which they applied to the Court Martial to have him transferred to Makindye military barracks.

He noted that the General Court Martial issued an order on December 24th, 2020 directing the Commissioner General of Uganda Prisons to hand over Bazibu to military police and if he wasn’t satisfied with the decision, he ought to have appeared before the Court Martial Appeals Court as provided for under the UPDF Act.

Delivering his ruling on Monday, Justice Musa Ssekaana noted that it was wrong and illegal to transfer Bazibu from Kitalya, a civil prison to Makindye barracks. He reasoned that the detention of civilians in military barracks directly infringes on their right to a fair trial since such facilities are not easily accessible to civilians, their lawyers, and family members to ably discuss their case in preparation for trial.

He also argued that remanding civilians in military custody infringes on the UPDF regulation number five, which states that any civilian subject to military law shall be remanded to a civil prison. “The above provisions of the law do not envisage any other circumstances when a civilian should ever be in detention of the military facility. This would imply the order made by the General Court Martial to have the applicant remanded under military detention is contrary to the law and therefore illegal”, ruled Ssekaana.

Adding that, “the reason advanced by Captain Ambroz Guma could be very correct that indeed there was a threat to the safety of the applicant, but this is not sufficient ground to give illegal orders of detention in an area not provided by the law. A military court is obliged to follow the law and avoid giving orders contrary to the laws of Uganda since it is itself a creature of the law.” As such, Ssekaana ordered that Bazibu be transferred to a civil prison immediately.

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