Africa-Press – Uganda. The Deputy Chief Justice has asked the government to prioritise the criminal justice system to enable it perform effectively.
Justice Richard Buteera said there is a need to build the capacity of the Judiciary and recruit more judges and magistrates so that there is adequate personnel to handle case backlog.
“We are making an appeal to the government to consider getting more judges because they are an investment that should be made for justice to be delivered to the populace,” he told journalists in Lira City on Monday.
The Deputy Chief Justice was in the area with a team of Justices, including Elizabeth Musoke, Hellen Obura and Remmy Kasule, for a criminal appeals session where they started handling 40 cases.This was the first offsite session that Justice Buteera started handling since he assumed office in August.
Out of the 40 appeals, five appellants are serving life sentences, which they want the court to overturn, according to Dr Ayebare Tumwebaze, the deputy registrar at the Court of Appeal.
Murder tops the list of appeals in this session with 20 cases, followed by defilement with 14 cases. The other case categorizations are robbery, with four appeals and rape, with two cases.
However, to avoid the spread of Covid-19, the court has decided to hold scientific sessions. Under this new normal, only the Justices and advocates are allowed in the courtroom, while the appellants follow the proceedings via video conferencing facility.
On Monday, Justice Buteera and his team met the appellants at Lira prison to guide them on how the scientific session would be conducted, as well as listen to and answer their queries.
Alfred Owola, a convicted appellant from Adjumani District, told the team that anomalies taking place during high court sessions are making citizens not to access justice.
“A was fighting with B; C came to separate them and B died in the process. The owner of the bar where the incident took place fled to an unknown destination,” he said.
The appellant added: “Five people were arrested, two never appeared in court; three people were released and later brought to testify against me. The person who witnessed the incident first hand was never brought to testify in court.”
Dicken Ogwang, another convicted appellant from Aromo Sub-county in Lira District, accused a lawyer assigned to him of bias.
“The lawyer did not record my views and I request for a change of advocate,” he said.
Justice Buteera said he had not gone to hear the appeals from Lira prison. “I expect you to raise it with your lawyers and that is why it’s compulsory that you are given a lawyer. Our purpose is to come, listen to your issues, look at the records and see how the High Court arrived at the decisions,” he explained.
The Deputy Chief Justice reassured the convicted appellants that his team will ensure justice is done for everybody. “Justice is not for one person,” he explained. “It’s for the victims of your offence, witnesses, the public and then you, the appellants. We are not going to look at one side only. We shall look at your side, the side of the victims and the law. So, justice is balancing all those interests and I believe we shall deliver our judgement fairly.”
Case backlog
This will be the last session for the Court of Appeal to handle this year. It is anticipated that at the end of the year, the court will have cleared 1,400 both civil and criminal case categories. Of these, about 700 are criminal matters.
