President Yoweri Museveni has explained why the two jailed members of parliament, Hon. Muhammed Ssegirinya and Hon. Allan Ssewanyana, have spent over a year on remand at Luzira prison.
The duo was arrested on September 7, 2022, and detained before being sent on remand to Luzira prison.
Museveni told journalist Remmy Bahati on the sidelines of the US African Summit in Washington DC that the two MPs do not deserve bail because their alleged crimes are connected to the deaths of 28 innocent people in Masaka.
According to Museveni, giving bail to suspects accused of capital crimes such as murder is a joke.
“Those people have been arrested legally, they come to court quite often, and the court is the one that sends them back to jail.”
The charges they are facing are serious charges to do with killing people. People were killed, 28 of them, in Masaka City were cut with machetes,” Museveni said.
“The prosecutors oppose it (bail) because bail for a serious [offence] is a joke. [Murder] is a very serious crime,” he added.
Earlier this month, the High Court’s International Crimes Division pushed the pre-trial proceedings of the two MPs to February 20, 2023.
Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana are being accused of being masterminds behind the killings in greater Masaka that claimed the lives of at least 28 residents between February and August last year.