By Joseph Kiggundu
COURT. Veteran opposition politian Dr. Kizza Besigye has declined to choose lawyers from a court-issued list of 786 State Brief advocates.
In his submission Besigye has told the High Court that he could not assess the competence of the state-funded lawyers and remained committed to being represented by his own legal team.
The issue dominated proceedings before Justice Emmanuel Baguma as the treason case resumed at the High Court Criminal Division in Kampala on Wednesday.
Justice Baguma asked Besigye whether he had selected lawyers from the list provided by the Registrar .Previous hearings have delayed by disputes over legal representation.
“My Lord, I received the list at 6:00 p.m. yesterday. It is an extensive list of 786 advocates, and I respectfully seek the Court’s guidance on how best to make a selection from it while the underlying questions concerning our legal representation remain unresolved,” Besigye responded
He said the case was too complex for him to choose lawyers based only on their names and years of practice.
“The Court is well aware that the charges we face are grave and complex, spanning events said to have occurred across four countries. Much of the evidence confronting us is technical and electronic in nature,” Besigye told the court.
He said the information supplied by the Registrar listed only the advocates’ names, years of enrolment, areas of practice and telephone contacts.
“This does not disclose their competencies,” he said.
“It is therefore vital… that we understand the respective competencies of the advocates named on the list, so that, guided by those competencies, we may make an informed selection.”
Besigye said he and co-accused Hajji Obeid Lutale still wanted to be represented by the lawyers they had originally appointed.
“Having said that, I wish to reiterate our earlier submission: the legal team we had is one in whose competence we placed full confidence, and which remains available to represent us in this matter once the concerns touching upon its members’ security have been resolved,” he said.
He told the court that those concerns are the subject of a pending High Court application and reminded Justice Baguma that he had previously undertaken to establish its status.
Besigye also argued that appointing State-funded lawyers would unnecessarily burden taxpayers when he and Lutale could afford to hire counsel of their own choosing.
“It would be an injustice to the people of Uganda to bear the cost of counsel on our behalf when we are able and willing to meet the requirements of counsel of our own choosing — the more so in these hard times, when people are dying of hunger,” he said.
Justice Baguma earlier ordered the Registrar to provide the accused with a list of lawyers on the State Brief panel after repeated adjournments over legal representation. The judge ruled that if the accused declined to make a selection, the court could appoint counsel on their behalf under Article 28(3)(e) of the Constitution.
Besigye and Lutale deny treason charges alleging they conspired between 2003 and November 2024 to overthrow the Ugandan government, including through meetings in Uganda, Kenya, Greece and Switzerland to seek military, financial and logistical support.
The case was transferred to the High Court after the Supreme Court ruled that civilians cannot be tried before military courts. Since then, proceedings have been repeatedly delayed by disputes over legal representation, access to prosecution evidence and other preliminary applications by the defence.