By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA (Reuters) – The Ugandan government intends to introduce a law to allow military tribunals to try civilians for certain offences even after the practice was banned by the Supreme Court.
Human rights activists and opposition politicians have long accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of using military courts to prosecute opposition leaders and supporters on politically motivated charges. The government denies the accusations.
In January Uganda’s Supreme Court delivered a ruling that banned military prosecutions of civilians, which forced the government to transfer the trial of opposition politician and former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye to civilian courts.
If successfully enacted, the new law could allow the government to take Besigye back to a military court martial.
The law has been drafted and is awaiting cabinet approval before it is introduced in parliament, Nobert Mao, the minister for justice and constitutional affairs, told parliament late on Thursday.
The law will define “exceptional circumstances under which a civilian may be subject to military law”, he said.
Besigye, a veteran political rival of Museveni, has been in detention for nearly five months on what his lawyers say are politically motivated charges.
He was detained in neighbouring Kenya in November and subsequently transferred to Uganda, where he was charged in a military court-martial with illegal possession of firearms among other offences.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and David Goodman)
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