Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |The Deputy Chief Justice, Richard Buteera is leading a team of Justices for a Criminal Appeals session yo handle up to 40 cases in Lira. The session which is starting today will be the first offsite session that the Deputy Chief Justice will be handling since he assumed office in August.
According to the Court’s Deputy Registrar, Ayebare Tumwebaze, out of the 40 Appeals, five appellants are serving life sentences which they want the court to overturn. Murder tops the list of Appeals in this session with 20 cases followed by defilement with 14 cases. The others include robbery with four appeals and rape with two cases.
In a statement issued the Judiciary, Ayebare explains that this will be the fourth session to be held outside Kampala this year. “We held the first session in Mbarara in June which was followed by another in Mbale in August and most recently there was one in Fort Portal in November and now we are in Lira.”
He adds that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court has decided to hold scientific sessions where only the Justices and advocates will be present in court while the appellants follow the proceedings through video conferencing.
He further explained that before the session can kick-off, the Justices and advocates will meet the appellants at Lira prison to inform them on how the scientific session will run as well as listen to and answer their queries.
This will be last session for the Court of Appeal to handle this year. It is anticipated that at the end of the year, the Court will have cleared 1,400 both Civil and Criminal case categories. Of these, about 700 are criminal matters.
The session will be week long after which the judges will return to Kampala to compile their judgments which they will deliver on notice. The other members of the panel are Justices Elizabeth Musoke, Hellen Obura and Remmy Kasule.
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