High Court judge Justice Margaret Oumo Oguli on Thursday ordered government to compensate each of the 22 people accused of murdering AIGP Andrew Kaweesi, with Shs. 80 million each after finding out that they 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 and inhuman treatment by both the Police and military officers.
Through their lawyer Rwadslaus 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 was all unlawful
In her ruling, the judge stated that Detective Superintendent of Police Olal Johnson, the investigating officer in the matter never denied holding the applicants for more hours but said that they were detained for long because they were known to be violent offenders. The 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 prisons Authority 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”