Besigye defence files constitutional stay petition

The High Court in Kampala last Thursday postponed plea-taking in the treason case against veteran opposition politician Kizza Besigy and politician Dennis Oola, after the defence revealed they had filed a constitutional petition and a related application seeking to stay the criminal proceedings. According to the Daily Monitor, the four-time presidential contender’s lawyers told the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Baguma that they had filed a constitutional petition together with the stay application. They argued that taking a plea, as the state had submitted before the stay application was resolved, would prejudice their clients. In his ruling, Baguma said he had carefully listened to both parties and that in the interests of justice the stay application needed to be handled first. He set 22 December as the date for arguing the application for stay of the proceedings and set the same day for mention of the main treason case. The application in question seeks two orders: that the hearing of the treason case be stayed pending the outcome of the Constitutional Petition challenging that is seeking interpretation on whether a judge facing a complaint before the Judicial Service Commission can fairly preside over a case involving the same complainant, and that the applicants be released on bail.