By Ronaldo Kalangi
The convicted former Tabliq Muslim leader Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga has been denied bail by the court of Appeal.
Sheikh Kamoga was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Crimes Division of the High court on several terrorism charges last year.
In his ruling on Friday, Justice Christopher Madrama maintained his stand he took last week while dismissing the bail application of another Muslim cleric, Sheikh Siraje Kawooya, that the two Sheikhs no longer enjoy the presumption of innocence having been convicted of a capital offence.
The judge further explained that since Sheikh Kamoga was also committed to serve the second most severe punishment to death, chances are high that he may abscond once admitted to bail .
Court also watered down his other grounds he advanced for bail such as old age of 66 yrs , his need of special palliative care for hypertension , ulcers and obesity which he had claimed could expose him to cardiac complications if left in prison .
Justice Madrama ruled that Kamoga led no proof to court’s satisfaction that the facility at Luzira prison can’t handle his medical condition .
Kamoga had also urged that his appeal challenging both his conviction and sentence have high chances of success since none of the prosecution witnesses placed him at the scenes of murder of the two Sheikhs, Mustapha Bahiga and Hassan Kirya and therefore its fair and just to temporarily release him from prison.
Madrama said he was not persuaded by “this reasoning” and instead ordered that the Sheikhs’ Appeal be expeditiously fixed for hearing other than having them released on bail.
Kamoga and 7 other Sheikhs were last year found guilty of committing Terrorism acts by the International Crimes Division of the High Court. They were sentenced to 30 years in jail and life imprisonment respectively , the sentences they have since challenged in the Court of Appeal.
