The King of Rwenzururu, Charles Wesley Mumbere’s bail application hearing has suffered a setback after the Director of public prosecutions blocked it claiming Jinja High Court has no jurisdiction to hear it.
Through his lawyers led by Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng and Samuel Muyizzi applied for Bail after being charged with terrorism, murder, robbery, among other offences last year.
Mumbere arrived at Jinja High court dressed in a black suite, white shirt and necktie at exactly 10:16am, accompanied by several police officers and prison warders.
But his lawyers were left in awe when prosecution led by Racheal Bikhole filed an application seeking a pause the bail application hearing by the Jinja High court illuminating that it has no jurisdiction to entertain Mumbere’s application.
According to prosecution, terrorism, one of the charges slapped against Mumbere can only be heard by the International Crimes Division of the High Court, adding that such a case can be heard by a panel of judges of the International Crimes Division or a single judge who is part of the panel but not any other judge outside the court.
Today’s application was before the Jinja High court Judge, Eva Luswata.
Meanwhile, this did not go down well with defence lawyers led by Caleb Alaka who argued that the whole issue was a ploy to delay justice, adding that the prosecution had too much time to file the same application before today emphasizing they are surprised it is just coming up.
The case was however adjourned to January 12th as the date Judge Eva Luswata will give her ruling on the application by the state.
