Uganda: Release on bail and ongoing judicial harassment of Eron Kiiza

UGA 001 / 0125 / OBS 003.1
Judicial harassment
Uganda

23 April 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Uganda.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed about the release on bail and ongoing judicial harassment of Mr Eron Kiiza, a lawyer involved in numerous public interest cases, and an advocate of human rights, environmental protection and the rule of law in Uganda.

On 4 April 2025, the Criminal Division of the High Court of Uganda at Kampala granted bail to Eron Kiiza pending his appeal trial. He was released on a 20 million Ugandan shillings (approximately 5,000 Euros) bail and on the condition that he surrender his passport.

The Observatory recalls that on 7 January 2025, Eron Kiiza was violently arrested by a soldier while entering the courtroom of the General Court Martial in Makindye, where he was representing, in his capacity as a lawyer, political opponent Dr Kizza Besigye and his aide Obeid Lutale during their trial.[1] Mr Kiiza was then taken to an unknown location for several hours, during which he was beaten and subjected to acts of torture. He reappeared a few hours later before the General Court Martial and was convicted for “contempt of court” and immediately sentenced to nine months in prison in violation of due process and fair trial standards as well as of international, constitutional and Ugandan domestic law. After the verdict, Mr Kiiza was immediately transferred to Kitalya Government prison, Busiro County, Wakiso District.

On 13 January 2025, Mr Kiiza appealed his sentence before the Court Martial appellate at Makindye. The appeal hearing in his case was not scheduled until 31 January 2025, when the Supreme Court declared in a landmark judgement[2] that all charges, ongoing and pending criminal trials, and convictions (which have been appealed) involving civilians before a military court, including the Court Martial Appellate Division, must immediately cease and be transferred to the ordinary courts of law with competent jurisdiction. Mr Kiiza’s appeal was then transferred to the Criminal Division of the High Court at Kampala, and no date for a hearing has been fixed. In addition, Mr Kiiza and his legal team have filed human rights enforcement applications challenging the conduct and actions he was subjected to during and after his arrest, and the illegality of the proceedings that led to his conviction.

The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing judicial harassment and acts of torture and ill-treatment against Eron Kiiza, which appear to be aimed only at restricting his freedom of expression and hindering his legitimate activities as a human rights lawyer. Persistent reports of arbitrary arrests and detentions by security forces targeting lawyers and human rights defenders were outlined in 2023 in the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations on the second periodic report of Uganda, demonstrating a worrying trend.

The Observatory urges the Ugandan authorities to immediately quash the conviction against Eron Kiiza and to put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, and any act of intimidation against him, as well as against all human rights lawyers and human rights defenders in the country.

The Observatory further calls on the Ugandan authorities to carry out an immediate investigation into the acts of torture and ill-treatment against Eron Kiiza, and bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international human rights standards. The United Nations Committee against Torture has already expressed in 2022 deep concerns that torture and ill-treatment were widespread and frequently practised in Uganda, and recommended the immediate suspension of suspected perpetrators from duty while investigations are carried out.

The Observatory also calls on the authorities in Uganda to guarantee that all lawyers in the country are able to carry out their legitimate professional activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all undue restrictions, in compliance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, adopted in Havana in 1990.

Action required:

Please write to the Ugandan authorities asking them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Eron Kiiza and all human rights defenders in Uganda;
2. Quash the conviction against Eron Kiiza, put an end to all acts of harassment - including judicial harassment - against him and guarantee his fundamental rights to due process and fair trial;
3. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the acts of torture and ill-treatment against Eron Kiiza, while ensuring his protection, and bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international human rights standards and concluding observations of United Nations treaty bodies;
4. Guarantee, in all circumstances, that all lawyers in Uganda are able to carry out their legitimate professional activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all undue restrictions, including judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, deprivation of liberty or other arbitrary sanctions, in compliance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

Addresses:

• Mr Kaguta Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, E-mail: museveni@starcom.co.ug / aak@statehouse.go.ug, Twitter: @KagutaMuseveni

• Ms Robinah Nabbanja, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, Email: ps@opm.go.ug, Twitter: @RobinahNabbanja

• Mr Jeje Odongo Abubakher, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, Twitter: @UgandaMFA

• Hon. Norbert Mao, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug

• Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Attorney General of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug

• Ms. Jane Frances Abodo, Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: admin@dpp.go.ug

• Ms. Mariam Fauzat Wangadya, Chairperson, Uganda Human Rights Commission, Email: uhrc@uhrc.ug

• H.E. Mr. Marcel Robert Tibaleka, Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Email: chancery@ugandamission.ch

• H.E. Mirjam Blaak Sow, Embassy of Uganda to the EU in Brussels, Belgium. Email: ugembrus@brutele.be, info@ugandamission-benelux.org

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Uganda in your respective countries.

***

Paris-Geneva, 23 April 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: alert@observatoryfordefenders.org

• Tel FIDH: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18

• Tel OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39

[1] Dr Kizza Besigye is a Ugandan political opponent and former presidential candidate for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). He was abducted on 16 November 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya and disappeared for several days, alongside fellow FDC member Obeid Lutale. They resurfaced on 20 November 2024 at the General Court Martial in Kampala, Uganda, where they were charged with security offences and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition with the aim of destabilising national security. They were remanded in custody at Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala, where they remain detained. On 21 February 2025, Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale were charged with treason at the Nakawa civilian court after their case was transferred from the military tribunal. On 11 April 2025, the High Court in Kampala denied them bail, even as the court acknowledged that all legal conditions for granting bail had been satisfied.

[2] In the case Attorney General V Micheal Kabaziguruka Civil Appeal No. 02 of 2021, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgement which quashed the authority of the General Court Martial to try civilians. The Supreme Court also reduced the General Court Martial to a mere disciplinary unit with powers to check the disciplinary conduct of the armed forces within their scope of duty. The lead judgement was delivered by the Chief Justice.