High Court has directed government of Uganda to pay shs 80 million to of the twenty two suspects accused of killing AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
Justice Margaret Oumo Oguli on Thursday said the compensation comes after Court found out that these inmates were tortured while in police custody
The suspects had petitioned High Court seeking to be released from Luzira on grounds that their rights were violated during their arrest and they are living in bad health conditions which resulted from torture.
Represented by human rights lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the suspects asked court to declare that the acts of detaining them for more than 48 hours in police cells without being taken to court, denying them access to their relatives after arrest, torturing them with pepper spray, beatings, punching, piercing of their bodies, suffocating and shocking them with electricity were illegal.
The judge said that the investigating of officer (IO) SP Olal Johnson acknowledged detaining the suspects beyond 48 hours because they were known to be harmful and violent.
Court also found loopholes in Olal’s claims that the suspects were peacefully arrested because he was not the arresting officer, and knew nothing about the arrest
The judge warned the prisons authorities against further torturing of suspects because she had previously ordered three of them to be taken to African center for rehabilitation of torture victim for examination but the prisonsAuthority blocked this process.
“Acts of prisons blocking the examination of the victims was not only in contempt of court but it showed that they were hiding something or they feared the report to reveal that it was true that they were tortured,” the Judge ruled.