Africa-Press – Uganda. The High Court on Tuesday ordered that Kizza Besigye and his aide Obeid Lutale take plea shortly after the prosecution amends the indictment in their case, following a standoff over its regularity.
The directive followed a ruling by trial judge Emmanuel Baguma, who agreed with the defence that the indictment, as initially presented, was procedurally defective.
Justice Baguma held that the registrar had failed to append a signature and to formally serve all parties, a requirement for a valid indictment.
He ordered the registrar to correct the defect and directed that the amended indictment be completed within 15 minutes.
The court further ordered the defence to use a subsequent 15 minutes to prepare the accused to immediately take plea once proceedings resume.
The ruling initially appeared to offer relief to the defence, which on Monday had challenged the validity of the indictment and objected to immediate plea taking, arguing that it would amount to an ambush and prejudice the accused.
However, Justice Baguma maintained that plea taking should proceed without delay once the procedural issues are cured.
On Monday, the judge denied bail to Besigye and Lutale and indicated that the court would only entertain fresh bail applications after plea has been taken.
By the time of filing this report, court was still in recess and proceedings were expected to resume shortly.
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