Lawyers from Kampala Associated Advocates(KAA) representing Molly Katanga who is accused of the murder of her husband, Henry Katanga have petitioned the Principal Judge seeking his intervention in violation of her rights.
The lawyers in a December, 13, 2023 letter say that on December, 12, after being operated on for the fifth time at C-Care IHK Hospital in Namuwongo, police officers forced themselves into the theatre prompting her caretaker to take photographs and video recordings of the proceedings.
“Upon the police officers noticing that they were being recorded, Constable Mangeni confronted our client’s next of kin and demanded for the deletion of the recordings. Our client’s next of kin refused to delete the recordings and the police officers tried to arrest him on allegations he was an obstacle to administration of justice,” KAA says in the letter to the Principal Judge.
The lawyers insist that police has maintained presence at the hospital despite previously denying having information about the whereabouts of Katanga’s widow in court, adding that police officers demand that all her medical records and information regarding her treatment are shared with them which is contrary to the provisions of the law.
They want the Principal Judge to intervene in this violation of the constitutional rights of Molly Katanga.
“My Lord, being charged with murder while being grievously injured doesn’t do away with our client’s constitutional right to life, right to privacy and mostly importantly the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Since this is a court of guided process and all parties including the Director of Public Prosecution are all officers of court, it is our prayer that you prevail over the blatant abuse of our client’s rights while she awaits to appear in court on the 8th of January 2024 as ordered by court,” the lawyers say.
The purpose of this letter is to request that you invoke your constitutional administrative powers to stop the different entities from interfering with our client’s medical treatment and care and trial.”
The lawyers also want the Principal Judge to issue clear directions on how the ongoing criminal proceedings should be conducted “to prevent the ongoing trial by media” based entirely on leaks of information by the Police to third parties.
