Human Rights lawyer Mr Eron Kiiza, who is also a personal counsel for veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, and his co accused Hajji Obeid Lutale, has asked the three state attorneys that were recently appointed to represent Besigye to stepdown from the treason case hearing set to begin on July 29th.
In a strongly worded four page letter dated July 16th, to the appointed lawyers who include Ms. Awero Sarah, Mr. Sserwambala Julius and Ms Namawejje Sylvia, Kiiza urged them to decline the brief, since accepting it would be a violation of the accused’s constitutional right to pick their own legal representation.
“You have been hand-picked at the instance of Mr. Baguma Emmanuel – the very judge who denied the accused their liberty (mandatory bail) on the pretext that he was unaware of their detention by the military starting on 16/11/2024” he said.
He added, “To appear for men who have not asked for you, who do not want you, and who already have counsel of their own choosing firmly on the record”.
Counsel Kiiza urged the trio to pause and weigh, in the quiet of their conscience the decision they were about to take by representing the duo, describing it as a ‘script’ whose closing scene dishonours every advocate who has ever enrolled before the Courts of Judicature of Uganda.
“The right to counsel of choice belongs to the accused. It is not the gift of the State. Article 28(3) (d) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, guarantees that every person charged with a criminal offence shall be permitted to defend himself before the court in person or, at his own expense, by a lawyer of his or her choice” he said.
He added, “Not the choice of the prosecution, not the choice of the trial court, and assuredly not the choice of Judge Baguma or of any other organ or agent of the State”
He noted that without instructions from the client, no advocate can lawfully represent a client without instructions.
“The entire edifice of our profession rests upon the retainer. The advocate-client relationship is not a duty the court may foist upon an unwilling recipient like a prison uniform” he said.
Kiiza noted that the advocate – client relationship is a consensual, fiduciary bond, founded upon trust and upon instructions freely given and freely received.
He further reminded the state lawyers that the accused lawyers have faced intimidation, including Martha Karua SC was deported back to Kenya, while Erias Lukwago is currently behind bars on charges of misprision of treason charges.
“Others among us have been threatened, surveilled, intimidated and harassed for no reason but our presence at that table” he said.
Kiiza further warned the advocates that accepting the roles, “Would be the seal the State presses upon its own illegality, the signature that makes the forgery appear genuine”.
Kiiza who was arrested and imprisoned by the court martial for several months while defending the duo, further advised that acting as Besigye’s lawyers would be a betrayal on three fronts of the accused, the law profession and the country at large.
“You would betray Uganda herself, and the duty every advocate owes under Articles 17 and 20 of the Constitution to uphold rights that are inherent and not granted by the State” he said.
Kiiza warned that accepting the brief would be surrendering the independence of the legal profession.
“A Bar that can be conscripted to prosecute in the disguise of defending can no longer protect anyone at all. Once this imposition succeeds and its precedent is set, it will not remain confined to the prominent or the political” he said.
According to Kiiza, the trio’s acceptance of the brief will affect solidarity in the legal fraternity, which is the professions last line of defence.
“To accept this brief is to say to Lukwago in his cell, to Karua beyond the border, and to every advocate who has paid a price for standing firm, that their sacrifice counted for nothing because a colleague was at last found who would step into the breach for the other side” he said.
In addition to creating disunity, Kiiza warned the advocates that they would be exposing themselves professional consequences.
“You would expose yourselves to the censure of the profession and to disciplinary proceedings before the Law Council, up to the gravest sanctions it can impose” he said.
Lastly, counsel Kiiza urged the appointed trio to decline the brief and return it with the quiet dignity of advocates who understand that some instructions ought never to be accepted, and some chairs ought never to be filled.
“Let the record show that when the State went searching for hands to do this thing, it did not find them at the Ugandan Bar” he said.
Kiiza’s letter follows Justice Emmanuel Baguma, order on Monday to the director of the Judiciary’s criminal division, to provide state lawyers for the duo to enable commencement of their trial.
