Lutale Defence Withdraws Objection to Transcription Evidence in Besigye Trial

What the report says

The defence for Obeid Lutale has withdrawn its objection to prosecution transcription reports in the treason case involving veteran opposition politician Kizza Besigye and others, allowing the trial to move forward on evidence drawn from audio and video recordings. According to Nile Post, High Court judge Emmanuel Baguma informed the court in Kampala that he would not proceed with a ruling he had already prepared after receiving a letter dated September 22 from Lutale’s lawyers saying they were abandoning the challenge.

The earlier objection had questioned the admissibility of transcripts made from more than 20 hours of audiovisual material. Lutale’s legal team had argued that the original electronic source material had not been properly verified and raised concerns about whether the flash drive taken for transcription was the same one later produced in court. The prosecution has relied on the transcription reports as part of its case in the treason trial.

With the objection withdrawn, the second prosecution witness, Dr Medadi Erisa Ssentanda of Makerere University’s Department of Languages, continued explaining how the recordings were transcribed. Justice Baguma directed that the recordings be played first, after which the witness would identify the matching sections in the transcripts, saying this would better show the link between the audio-visual material and the written reports.

The article says many transcript entries were marked “indistinct,” suggesting that parts of the recordings were unclear. Besigye was absent from court on Monday, and the defence is expected to cross-examine the witness on the transcription process and accuracy of the reports.