High Court Dismisses Captain Aleper’s Plea for Release After Five Years in Detention Without Trial

The High Court in Kampala dismissed an application in which Captain Hilman John Bosco Aleper, who was dismissed from the army with disgrace, sought his unconditional release from Kigo Prison, citing a long detention period without trial.

Captain Aleper sued the Attorney General in early 2024 saying that he had been detained at Kigo Prison since February 2019 when he was dumped there by the UPDF Unit Disciplinary Committee -UDC after it charged him with unlawful possession of UPDF hardware.

Through his relative Sulaiman Ssekamwa, Aleper told the Court that on September 3rd  2023 together with his lawyer  Jude Mbabali had a meeting at Kigo Prison to discuss how to have him released from Kigo Prison and he gave instructions to Mbabali to secure his release.

Ssekamwa told the Court that Aleper was arrested on February 10th 2019 from his home in Kiyimbwe by the Join Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) on accusations that he had firearms and took him to CMI headquarters at Mbuya.

The court heard that Aleper was a serving soldier in UPDF but his services were terminated by General Court Martial at Makindye in File Case No. UPDF/GCM/024/2014 and since then he ceased to be a member of the UPDF, which the people who arrested him did not know and they treated him like a serving officer.

He further told the Court that he remained in detention at Mbuya without being taken to any court until February 28th 2019 when he was presented before the UPDF Unit Disciplinary Committee (UDC) at CMI Mbuya which sent him to Makindye Military Barracks on remand.

When he complained to the military officers at Makindye Barracks that he was wrongly remanded at the barracks and wrongly charged before the UPDF Unit Disciplinary Committee (UDC) as he was no longer a serving soldier, they realized the mistake and took him back to the UDC at Mbuya which this time remanded him at Kigo prison on the 31st day of May 2019 so that he is charged as a civilian but it is now 5 years and he has never been charged or taken to any court.

According to Aleper, the reason why they have not taken him for trial is that there was no evidence against him and secondly they realized he was no longer a serving soldier thereby he was being wrongly charged before the Unit Disciplinary Committee of the UPDF.

He said he wrote to all senior members of UPDF including the Chairman of the General Court Martial and they all denied ever having sanctioned the charges or being aware of the same. In response, the Attorney General said Aleper was arrested and charged before the court martial and is being held in a gazetted place for detention.

He said Aleper has not shown any evidence that he applied for bail or that the bail was never granted before the court-martial.

The Attorney General noted that Aleper had retired from the UPDF and was found in possession of a firearm AK 47 rifle and other military stores and he was formally charged before the court martial in line with section 119(1) of the UPDF Act. The government argued that Aleper though retired as a civilian can be subject to military law once found in unlawful possession of firearms or classified stores.

In his decision, Justice Musa Ssekaana dismissed Aleper’s application saying that he had a window to gain his liberty and freedom by applying for bail pending the hearing of his criminal matter before the court martial but didn’t use it. He said Aleper is not the only accused person who has spent long on remand without being tried, although the Judge says it is unfortunate.

“The applicant is challenging the long period on remand or detention without the criminal charges being heard at the General Court Martial. The problem of long periods on remand is not unique to the applicant only and other suspects are on remand for similar periods. It is unfortunate but there are factors which need to be addressed to reduce the period such suspects could spend on remand without trial”, said Ssekaana.

He added that the period in issue was exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown which limited interaction and this affected the criminal justice system during this period.

“Since the applicant has already appeared before the Court Martial for trial, it would not be in the interests of justice to order his release since he is suspected to have committed an offence under the UPDF Act. This application fails and is dismissed with no order as to costs”, said Ssekaana.

In December 2022, the Constitutional Court ordered the Court Martial to stop trying civilians. However, the Government was granted an interim injunction by the Supreme Court and to date, it continues to try civilians.