Africa-Press – Uganda. The proposed changes to the country’s criminal justice system have now gone to courts of law for adjudication.
The court case filed yesterday by city lawyer Male Mabirizi came days after the Cabinet — chaired by President Museveni last Friday — endorsed controversial constitutional amendments targeting bail and police bond.
In a lawsuit filed before the High Court in Kampala, Mr Mabirizi contends that a minister who took oath to protect the Constitution cannot be the same to initiate the process to derogate inherent human rights likely to deny bail to suspects.
Mr Mabirizi now wants court to block Parliament or any government official from acting on the adopted Cabinet memo to initiate a process that would lead to a constitutional amendment to make it harder for judicial officers to grant bail to suspected capital offenders.
“An order of prohibition, prohibiting Parliament or any Ugandan government official or agency from dealing with or implementing the Cabinet memo titled: ‘Release on police bond or court bail: Recommendations for reform’ drawn and presented to Cabinet by the Attorney General on October 6,” the court document reads in part.
The petitioner is mainly seeking to stop the prohibition of bail for persons facing charges triable both by magistrates and High Court. He also has taken exception to the proposal to increase from 48 hours to 48 business hours the time of having suspects in police custody before being presented to the court.
The petitioner also wants to stop the adoption of the October 15 Cabinet decision to have the proposed bail/ bond reforms adopted.
Mr Mabirizi states that the adoption of the Cabinet memo was irrational, unreasonable and devoid of common sense since the government did not consult stakeholders and there was public participation.
“The impugned decisions are illegal, ultra vires the functions of the Attorney General and Cabinet, procedurally improper and unreasonable,” Mr Mabirizi avers in his affidavit before court.
On Friday last week, Cabinet endorsed criminal justice reforms, among them amendments to the 1995 Constitution and the Police Act, to deny suspects on capital offences bail or police bond.
Cabinet sources singled out suspects on murder, rape, robbery and treason charges, among others, as the main target for the proposed reforms.
