Grace Matsiko and Lominda Afedraru
30 August 2008
Government yesterday deported two South African nationals arrested at Entebbe last week on suspicions of being of terrorists.
The decision to deport the suspects was taken by the National Security Council (NSC) chaired by the Internal Affairs Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda on Thursday.
NSC comprised Ministers for defence, security, foreign affairs, internal affairs and heads of security agencies. "We deported them they are out of Uganda," Minister Rugunda said yesterday. "They were deported so that the South African authorities can follow up the matter from there," he added.
The Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) on August 17, 2008 arrested Mr Hussein Bhayat and Mr Haroon Saley on arrival at Entebbe International Airport.
This move prompted lawyers from Muwema, Mugerwa and Co Advocates to withdraw the case they had filed before High Court compelling the commanding officer of the Joint Anti Terrorism Task Force to produce the men before court since they were detained for over the legal requirement of 48 hours.
Mr Ali Siraj appearing before the presiding Justice John Bosco Katusi said the matter had been overtaken by events and therefore it was not proper to pursue it.
"We have instructions to withdraw the matter since it has been overtaken by events. The basis of this matter was on detention of the two men not being produced before Court to answer any charges, but we have received information from Mr Yosha Tayob the Attorney representing the two men in South Africa that the Uganda government put them on a plane that set off for Johannesburg at around 7.35 am," Mr Siraj told Mr Katusi.
Mr Katusi consequently withdrew the matter as requested by the lawyers.
In the application that was supported by the affidavit of Mr Roscoe Yiga, a city lawyer, he stated that it was illegal to detain the men in ungazetted safe houses because this violated their right to personal liberty as provided in the Constitution
According to Yiga apart from the media reports, relatives and friends of the men including the South African Commission office in Uganda were denied access to the men to find their condition while in custody.
The lawyers wanted Court order directing the commanding officer of the Joint Anti Terrorism Task Force to produce the two men in Court immediately.
However, Daily Monitor has been reliably informed that three agents of America's intelligence apparatus the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interrogated the two South African men last week and flew back to Washington on Tuesday. The trio came from the global terrorism squad interrogation department
US embassy claimed they were unaware of the visit of CIA agents to Uganda.
"I cannot confirm that CIA agents visited Uganda because I have not heard about it. That is real news to me because I know nothing about that," US embassy deputy spokesperson, Ms. Lauren Ladenson said on Wednesday.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
