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Janak Rogers
31 August 2010
A lawyer representing five Kenyan men held in Uganda over alleged involvement in the 11 July Kampala bombings has asked the Kenyan government to intervene to guarantee their constitutional rights.
In a letter addressed to the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenyan lawyer Mbugua Mureithi alleges the men were kidnapped and "forcibly rendered" to Uganda between 27 July and 18 August.
Speaking from Kampala, Muriethi told RFI that the Kenya government has a duty to intervene.
"The Kenyan government owes the five Kenyans that were kidnapped a responsibility to ensure that they get all the consular support while in Uganda," he says
"Their fair trial rights are already being violated. They don't have legal representation, yet under the Uganda constitution of 1995 any person who is brought to court on account of an offence punishable by death or life imprisonment is entitled to representation at state expense."
Since being in custody they have received no legal counsel and have had their fair trial rights violated, Mureithi's letter alleges.
According to Mureithi, three of the five men - Hussein Hassan Agade, Idris Magondu, Mohamed Adan Abdow - appeared in court in Uganda on 30 July without legal representation.
Two others, Ismail Abubakar and Mohamed Hamid Sulemein, appeared in a Ugandan court amongst a group of 32 accused of involvement in the bombings on 18 July, also with no legal representation.
Furthermore, the letter states the some of the men were interrogated by Ugandan authothorities Kenya Anti-Terrorism Police and American FBI agents after having been arraigned in court.
"Continued police interrogation after arraignment offends the basic adversarial nature of a criminal trial", the letter says. "Such interrogations convert the trial into an inquisition and deprive the accused the right to remain silent."
The five men are due to appear together in the Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court on 2 August.
The suicide bombings in Kampala killed 76 people on the evening of the football World Cup final.
Members of Somalia's Islamist insurgent group Shebab have claimed responsibility for the attack. Among the defendants charged are 14 Ugandans, 10 Kenyans, six Somalis, one Rwandan and one Pakistani, according to a list published by the state-controlled New Vision newspaper.
Read or Listen to this story on the RFI website
