Over 100 Police officers in the three policing regions in Busoga including Kiira, Busoga North and Busoga East have been educated on the pre-trial process requirements in a bid to observe suspect’s rights.
During a one-day work at Source of the Nile hostel in Jinja city over the weekend, the men in uniform were urged to implement the Uganda Human Rights Policy for professional execution of duties.
Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Erasmus Twaruhukwa, the Director of human rights and legal services, presided over the training, highlighting the significance of observing protection and promotion of human rights based approach to day to day policing.
In his remarks, Twaruhukwa stressed the principles of human rights approach, emphasizing constitutionalism and rule of law, human dignity, accountability, transparency, non discrimination and participation.
He further elaborated the adherence of the 48-hours rule without being over defensive, stating that conducting arrest sanctioned by superior officers helps proper handling of cases from the initial stages. He added that rights of the suspects should be observed from the time of arrest up to the time of being arraigned to court.
His Worship Ochieng Eyafes the Grade one magistrate at Jinja court who took through officers about three stakeholders in the pre-trial process (Police, Judiciary, and office of the DPP), pointed out the the three vital stages of trial including arrest, investigations and appearing in court.
Ochieng explained the rights of suspects underlining a right of a language one understands well right from the time of arrest, informing parents or guardians for juvenile offenders, promptly informing next of kin or lawyer, and a right to apply for police bond.
Other rights include compensation in incidents of unlawful arrest and detention, right to fair hearing, presentation in court within 48 hours, and applying for habeas corpus among other rights. He, however cautioned members of the public against resisting lawful arrests, obstructing justice and exhibiting violent behavior before, during and after the arrests.
Ochieng stated that police has a role to determine the weight of a case (criminal or civil) before making an entry in the SD Ref book adding that it’s a common practice for CID standby at the counter to register a civil case as criminal emanating from land cases and debt collection.
He said 50 per cent of the cases involving obtaining money by false pretence are civil cases and they tarnish the image of police, cautioning officers to desist from such distressing practices.
The regional Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Glady Nyanzi, noted that police duties feed into prosecution which prosecution also feeds the judiciary. She advocated for adoption of prosecution guided investigations which calls for together rights, preserving scene of crime, and retrieving exhibits of evidence value.
The practice minimizes chances of losing cases and increases chances of winning cases in the pre-trial process while summary prosecution guided investigations works on the basis of “Know your case, I know my case.”
“A serial offender should be having clear information over related cases not on different cases and officer recording charge and cautious statement should be done in a language the suspect understands then suspect should countersign on it not the translated English version. Strictly one officer should record one charge and cautious not same officer recording more than two,” she said.
According to SSP Rogers Sseguya, the human rights policy will effectively be implemented which the regional CID, SSP Monday Johnson Agaba pledged to bring down the figures of human rights violation in Busoga.
