By KT Reporter
A torture complaint lodged before the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) tribunal has been rejected and dismissed.
Charles Okello, a 67-year-old resident of Ayiro ward, Otuke Sub-County in Otuke District, accused police of torturing him until he fell unconscious. The crime was allegedly committed on 23rd January 2009.
However, the tribunal found that the case registered by Okello on 13th May 2015 by the Director Complaints, Investigations and Legal Services is completely different to the one he presented to the tribunal on 26th October 2016.
The tribunal, chaired by Mariam Wangadya and commissioners Lamex Omara Apitta, Crispin Kaheru, and Col. (Rtd.) Stephen Basaliza took over the hearing of the matter when it was partly heard by a former Commissioner, the late Joseph A.A. Etima, sitting as a sole Member.
In his undated statement before the tribunal, Okello said that on the fateful day, he was arrested by the Police for insulting someone he did not name. He neither named the Police Post nor the Police Station where he had been reported, but went ahead to say that two minutes after he was sent to the cell, a police officer, Denis Odoch, opened the door and started beating and kicking him on the orders of Acting Officer-in-Charge Boniface Ojok and Grace Akech.
But in Okello’s case, which was communicated to the Director of Complaints and Investigations, it expanded to include particulars of alleged torture he never mentioned at all in his statement.
“The O/C and Corporal Akech ordered SPC Odoch to severely beat him as a result of which he sustained injuries on the right arm, right leg, eyes and chest.”
However, when Okello appeared before the late Etima on 26th October 2016, he said, “When I reached the Police Post, Ojok ordered Odoch to follow me to the cell where he beat me until I became unconscious.”
Adding “He was using a very big stick and a hammer to beat me. He stepped on my stomach and kicked my head, and the following day, I started urinating and vomiting blood. My left eye was swollen… I was beaten because I was selling a lot of milk without buying beer for the Policemen.”
Meanwhile, Okello’s expert witness, Arum Yuventino, in his 28th June 2010 statement, said that Okello was not beaten by Police Officers, but by fellow suspects. When Arum appeared before the tribunal on 28th October 2019, he said Ojok, Odoch and Akech beat Okello from the entrance of the cell using a wire and batons.
Following this, the tribunal wondered whether or not there was any case. “The above were 3 distinct cases brought by Okello against the same respondent at different intervals arising from the same facts” Which of these 3 cases did the tribunal hear, and which of these 3 cases should the tribunal decide?”
Wangadya explained that the tribunal will not labour into all the merits of the case. “Should we assume that each subsequent case erases and replaces the previous one? If so, this should have been expressly stated.”
And further, “fresh cases altogether ought to have been filed separately with different registration numbers subject to the limitation period.”
They then decided that, “This tribunal will not allow nonexistent, phantom, false, fake, fictitious, concocted, extortionist and malicious ‘cases’ to continue against any party under the guise of ‘flexibility’, else this would be an abuse of authority.”
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