President Ochi in Uganda Musevini signs a new law that allows military trials for civilians

Ugandan President Uri Museini signed an amendment law that allows, once again, to try civilians in a military court under certain circumstances.

The Supreme Court spent a previous law that allowed such unconstitutional trials in January.

Before this ruling, Civilians can be transferred to a military court if they are found with military equipment Like guns or military uniforms. Activists complained that the law was used to persecute government critics.

Parliamentarians approved the amendment last month amid a hard police and a boycott by opposition lawmakers, who argued that he had violated the rule of the country’s highest court.

In January, the rulers said that the military courts were not neutral or eligible to practice judicial functions, according to the International Human Rights Association at that time.

The amendment appears to be trying to address some issues.

She says that those who head the courts must have legal qualifications and related training. He also says that while performing their legal functions, they should be independent and fair.

But it is still possible to transfer civilians if it is found with the military services.

“The law will decisively deal with violent armed criminals, and deter the formation of armed political groups that seek to sabotage democratic operations, and to ensure that national security is linked to a fixed institutional base. If it is not broken, it is not suitable!” Colonel Chris Majzi wrote on X after passing the bill by deputies.

But opposition leader Bobby Wayne said that the law would be used against him and others.

“We all in the opposition are targeting the law,” news agency told Agence France Presse.

Ugandan Law AssociationA professional body representing the country’s lawyers said that it will “challenge the constitutionality” of the amendment.

For years, activists argued that the military courts were using the government to silence the defectors, as people claimed that the evidence had been planted.

“If you are a political opponent, they will find a way to prepare you under the military court, then you know that your fate is sealed … as soon as justice will never visit your door,” human rights lawyer told the BBC in February.

He added that people can spend years in detention in pretrial detention, as the courts are awaiting decisions from senior military figures, which may never come, and those who were tried and convicted of more severe penalties than civil courts.

The recent high -level case followed the arrest of November from the leading opposition figure, Kizza Besigye. He was captured in the neighboring Kenya, was transferred across the border and then was accused in a military court of possessing pistols and trying to buy weapons abroad, which he denied.

These charges were dropped, and replaced by others, when his case was transferred to a civil court in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, Description of the ruling as “the wrong decision”He added, “The country is not subject to judges. It is governed by the people.”

He was Previously, he defended the use of military courts They said they dealt with “the outbreaks of criminals and terrorists who were using weapons to kill people randomly.”

He said that the civil courts were very busy “by dealing with these criminals who take up arms quickly.”