The National Unity Platform’s (NUP) political prisoner Yasin Sekitoleko ‘Machete’, is reportedly considering pleading guilty to the charge of treachery and illegal possession of firearms in order to secure his freedom after five years on remand without trial.
According to lawyer and human rights activist Agather Atuhaire, during a recent visit to Kitalya maximum security prison where Sekitoleko was remanded to by the Makindye Court martial in 2021, he confided in her that he wanted to enter a guilty plea, to the charge since he no longer trusted the country’s judicial system.
“A few days ago, I went to Kitalya after many requests from Yasin Sekitoleko to see me. He wanted to seek my advice on whether he should plead guilty and leave prison as he’s still being coerced by the state” she said.
She added, “He said, “madam Agather tukooye ekommera. Emyaaka tugenda mumukaaga. Banange tukooye atte nga teli suubi nti tulifuna obwenkanya okuva mu court..”.
Loosely translated from the Luganda dialect to mean; “Madam Agather we are tired of prison, we are going to make six years in here, we are tired, yet we don’t have hope that we will ever get a fair hearing before the court”.
According to Agather, she advised him that no one would blame him or his other nine colleagues still on remand on the same charge, for entering a guilty plea to secure their freedom, and asked her to inform the public of the decision he is set to take.
“The Judiciary UG has failed them, like it has many other Ugandans. Maybe we have also failed them for not doing more to demand for their rights and the rights of all the other citizens that have been disappeared, murdered, arbitrarily detained, tortured, etc. he asked me to tell you about this conversation” she said.
Sekitoleko, was arrested in April 2021 and appeared in the General Court Martial, he has had his bail application rejected four times, he was part of the political prisoners but refused to plead guilty like his colleagues who were released in November 2024.
Despite the Supreme Court decision requiring the transfer of his matter to civilian courts, it hasn’t happened.
According to Agather, Sekitoleko has been on a hunger strike for a week now and remains in a very critical condition in Murchison Bay prison where he was transferred to recently.
In November 2024, President Yoweri Museveni President Museveni granted pardon, to 19 members of the National Unity Platform, who included Olivia Lutaaya, after changing their pleas on October 14th to guilty in a military court.
“I hereby grant a pardon of the sentence to the persons of the offence of treachery… of the UPDF (army) act and unlawful possession of ammunitions contrary to the Firearms Act,” Museveni said in the pardon at the time.
The previous pardon deal was struck by Minister Balam Barugahara, during a visit to Kitalya Maximum Security Prison two days before the dramatic change of plea.
