Court martial sentences Olivia Lutaaya and 16 other NUP members to four months in prison.
In a show of leniency, the Court Martial in Makindye on Wednesday sentenced the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters to three months and 22 days in prison.
The guilty plea Olivia Lutaaya and 16 of her fellow political prisoners turned in to the General Court Martial is however yet to secure their conviction; their internment goes on for more than three months.
The group was on Monday convicted of treachery upon their own guilty plea.
Youth and Children Affairs minister and fixer Balaam Barugahara is said to have visited the detainees and offered an ‘olive branch’ for their confession.
Their confession, on October 14, was widely welcomed by the public. But it also saw heated exchanges by NUP leaders as well as divided opinion.
Ms. Lutaaya, 32, was in 2021 violently arrested from her home in Namuwongo, a Kampala suburb, and detained incommunicado for weeks before she was arraigned in the military court.
The Court Martial, chaired by Brig Gen. Robert Mugabe, alleges that Ms. Lutaaya and 31 others were found in possession of ammunition. They were later slapped with additional charges of treachery.
The NUP supporters are alleged to have been found in illegal possession of 13 pieces of explosive devices between November 2020 and May 2021 in areas of Jinja, Mbale, Kireka, Nakulabye, Kawempe, Natete, and Kampala Central.
Initially 32, the military court has had them capitulate one after the other Ms. Lutaaya and more than a dozen others caved in on October 14 after withstanding it all for more than three years.
