Jamil's repatriation ruling to Uganda postponed

By Joan Pounds

Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday postponed ruling on the leader of Uganda’s Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Jamil Mukulu, demanding further documents from the prosecution side.
The court wanted documents on specific offences against the accused.
The prosecution wanted the court to repatriate the accused to his home Principal Resident Magistrate, Cyprian Mkeha of the Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court said: “Before giving a ruling on the matter, you should specify the offences the accused will be charged with.”
Led by Principal State Attorney, Edwin Kalokola , the prosecution accepted the order stating that all documents would be ready before next Friday. “We therefore request you to announce the ruling date that day (Friday),” he said.
Outside the court room, Kalokola told this paper the ruling that had been expected was whether to send Mukulu to Uganda or not.
Uganda has heard of his arrest and wants him home for several offences committed by his group.
He is known to commit murder but the Kisutu court ordered for specific count before it can give a ruling.
On his arrest in April, Ugandan media revealed that Mukulu was being accused of commanding a spate of brutal attacks on civilians in Uganda and Eastern DRC Congo since the late 1990s.
“I can confirm we have positively identified the suspect as Jamil Mukulu,” a senior Ugandan military official, who declined to be named, said: “We are now working with the Tanzanian authorities to repatriate him.”
The arrest brings to an end a long manhunt for one of the region’s most brutal rebel leaders. Uganda and Tanzania authorities are expected to devise ways of ensuring Mukulu faces justice, without giving him a platform to turn himself into a hero.
Fred Enanga Uganda’s police spokesman said separately that Mukulu would be tried at Uganda’s international crimes division in Kampala after repatriation.
“We are aware he has committed crimes beyond our borders but it is Uganda which initiated his arrest warrant,” Enanga said.
Tanzanian officials did not immediately comment on the development.
Mukulu, a former Roman Catholic who converted to Islam, founded the group ADF in 1990s to topple the Ugandan government.
Since the late 1990s, Mukulu and his fighters have swept across Uganda and Eastern Congo, killing thousands of people, mainly civilians, aid officials say.
He is charged with murder, terrorism and treason.
ADF fled Ugandan army offensive around 2000 and established rear bases in the Eastern DRC.
Their presence has for years acerbated the lawlessness in Congo in addition to giving Kampala a pretext for intervening there.
In 1998, ADF rebels massacred 80 students during an attack at a college in western Uganda. In November last year, ADF rebels killed more than 100 people in series of gruesome attacks in Eastern Congo, according to the UN.
Last year, Tanzanian forces attacked ADF rebel camps near Congo’s gold trading town of Beni, shortly after defeating another rebel group, known as the M23 in a US-backed campaign to rid the mineral-rich region of dozens of rebel groups.
A Congolese military court tried Mukulu in absentia and sentenced him to death in November 2014, after convicting him and three others for terrorism and murder, in relation to a spate of attacks inside Congo.
Mukulu was put on the UN sanctions list in 2011 for his role in the destabilisation of Congo.