Former World Boxing Champion Justin Juuko jailed in Uganda

The government has told High Court in Kampala that the Forum for Democratic Change -FDC party coordinator for Greater Masaka Region Justin Juuko was remanded after being charged with treachery.

Juuko, also known as “The Ugandan destroyer,” was arrested on December 12 from Kyazanga and reportedly charged by the Unit Disciplinary Committee-UDC of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence. This is according to the evidence tendered before High Court Civil Division Judge Musa Ssekaana on Monday, by the Attorney General’s representatives.

The documentary evidence tabled during the hearing of an application demanding Juuko’s whereabouts and unconditional release indicates that Juuko was charged with treachery and being in illegal possession of firearms. The document shows that Juuko is now waiting to be tried by the General Court Martial but avails no evidence of where he was remanded to. 

The military prosecutors allege that the 48-year old who is a resident of Nabbingo in Wakiso District and a member of the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC party was found training and mobilising youth groups from Kyengera, Kamengo, Lukaya, Masaka, Kyabakuza and Lyantonde on how to use martial arts, small arms like pistols and Sub Machine Guns and catapults against Ugandans after January 14, 2021, presidential election.

It is also alleged that Juuko was found with a numberless Star Pistol with seven rounds of ammunition which he was using it to train the said groups of youth yet the said pistol is ordinarily a monopoly of the Defense Forces. All the crimes were reportedly committed in Kyazanga, Lwengo District.

The details of this evidence were in an affidavit by Mark Muwonge, a State Attorney in the Attorney General’s chambers. In the affidavit, Muwwonge stated that Juuko shouldn’t be released unconditionally since he is already charged by a court. Muwonge was responding to the application filed last week by the Deputy Secretary-General of FDC Harold Kaija who asked the court to release Juuko on grounds that his Constitutional right to liberty had been violated.

The FDC party went to court after Juuko and another coordinator Garypo Mayanja spent close two weeks in a detention centre without being produced before any court of law contrary to the constitutional provision which limits detention without trial to 48 hours. Mayanja was however on December 22, 2020, released on police bond by the Special Investigations Department of Police in Kireka on charges of inciting violence.

But today after the government failed to disclose Juuko’s whereabouts, FDC’s lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde said that the court has given government 48-hours to disclose it and return on December 31, 2020, for further hearing of the application.

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URN