KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday his government would continue to prosecute civilians in military tribunals even after the country’s top court banned the practice, ruling it unconstitutional.
In a majority decision on Friday, the east African country’s Supreme Court banned prosecutions of civilians in military courts and ordered all ongoing cases there to be transferred to civil courts.
The ruling was hailed by key opposition figure Kizza Besigye’s lawyer as offering him some relief during an ongoing trial by the country’s general court martial.
In a statement to the media on Saturday, Museveni described the court’s decision as wrong and said military prosecutions reinforce the civil courts and had helped in pacifying Karamoja, a region in Uganda’s northeast plagued by armed violence.
“The country is not governed by the judges,” he said. “The military courts helped us to discipline Karamoja. We cannot and will not abandon this useful instrument for stability.”
Human rights activists and opposition politicians have long accused Museveni’s government of using military courts to prosecute opposition leaders and supporters on politically motivated charges.
While civilian court judges are independent, military court officials are appointed by the president.
Ugandan pop star turned opposition leader Bobi Wine has previously been prosecuted in a military court over weapons offences.
Besigye, a longtime opponent of Museveni, was detained in neighbouring Kenya in November and brought back to Uganda to be charged with several weapons and security offences in the general court martial.
He has been held in detention since and was due to reappear in court on Monday, but his lawyers said after the ruling on Friday that he now would not do so.
In power since 1986, Museveni has not openly stated whether he would seek re-election at the polls next year although he is widely expected to do so.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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