Africa-Press – Uganda. The Judiciary on Wednesday, launched a set of rules to guide on bail, execution of court orders by bailiffs, legal representation of suspects by state-funded lawyers and amicus curie (friends of court).
The guidelines are aimed at clearly spelling out what should be done when one is applying for bail, what is expected of suspects who need state lawyers to represent them in court, how to effectively carry out court orders by bailiffs and how to be admitted to court as a friend of court.
Under the new guidelines, the bail requirements include a national identification card or a work identification card or a student’s card. Prior, the National Identification card was the only recognised identification. This now opens a window for many suspects who didn’t have a National Identification card to also apply and be released on bail.
In the same vein, the Judiciary is applauded for having not danced to the tunes of the Executive that had demanded a blanket denial of bail for suspects facing capital offenses until they have been on remand for at least 180 days.
The Judiciary majorly maintained the constitutional guidelines on bail for courts to have their discretion to release the suspects on bail as long there are exceptional circumstances such as grave illness that can’t be treated in prison, no objection letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and advanced age.
The other highlight of the bail guidelines is that unlike before when the time to hear bail was open-ended, now a judicial officer has to hear and determine a bail application within one month.
With this development, at least suspects know that once they apply for bail, their fate of regaining temporary freedom or not will be determined in near future.
On the issue of legal representation of suspects by state lawyers; core to the new guidelines is that the lawyers now going forward, have to meet their clients in prison, at least 10 days before the trial starts.
This is aimed at having the state-funded lawyer have quality time with the prisoner to understand their case very well.
Previously, the practice was that State appointed lawyers met the suspects in court on the very day of the trial.
The rules also spell out several offenses that a court bailiff may commit, including fraudulently procuring a license, executing a warrant without a court order, executing a court order against a wrong party, executing a court order outside the stipulated time, and failure to follow legal steps.
So when found liable, the bailiff is jailed up to three months.
With this new rules, the with their impunity, hence bringing some sanity in the execution of court orders.
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