When the suspects charged with carrying out the deadly bomb attacks in Kampala appear in court Friday, prosecutors are expected to keep their theories about the crime to themselves.

Friday's hearing will likely be brief, with the accused quickly returned to detention.

Uganda has charged 38 people with terrorism, 76 counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder for their roles in the July 11 bombings that targetted fans watching the World Cup final.

Two suspects have since been released and Uganda’s top prosecutor Richard Butera said the charges could be amended further before the case goes to trial.

The accused include 13 Kenyans, among them a human rights activist, who may have been extradited illegally, and four Ugandans who confessed to the murders in front of foreign and local media.

Butera defended his office's decision to withhold the details that tie the plot together.

"This is a crime that was committed across borders. The activities leading to this crime took time, cover long distances, cover many people. It's an investigation that will take time," he said.

"The information will be availed to every accused person and his lawyer within the appropriate time."
But rights groups and a lawyer representing 13 of the accused have recently voiced frustration about the state's unforthcoming approach.

Last week Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued a joint letter calling on Uganda to either release or provide details of the evidence against Al-Amin Kimathi, founder of the Kenya-based Muslim Human Rights Forum.

Kimathi was snatched by police on September 15 after traveling to Uganda to attend a hearing of others being tried for the attacks.

Uganda says it arrested Kimathi when police disrupted a meeting of alleged terrorist collaborators at a hotel outside Kampala.

At that meeting, according to police, was Omar Awadh Omar, a man some Kenyan and Ugandan media have indentified as Al Qaeda's second-in-command in East Africa.

"What we know is that (Omar) is a senior operative of Al Shebab," police spokesman Vincent Ssekate told AFP, referring the Somalia's Islamist group.

He said speculation as to Omar's seniority in Al Qaeda "is just media rumour."The lawyer representing both Kimathi and Omar, said Uganda's version of the arrests is nonsense.

While he did not discuss Omar's Al Qaeda links, Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the defence lawyer for the Kenyan suspects, said Omar was arrested in Kenya not Uganda, as authorities here insist.

Rwakafuuzi also suggested that some of the 13 accused Kenyans were charged because American and Kenyan officials suspect they have terrorist links, not because of any evidence linking them to the Kampala blasts.

In August, four Ugandans gave journalists detailed confessions of how they carried out the attacks.
The extra-judicial and public confessions were organised by Uganda's military intelligence chief, although the country's police chief later called the event "unprofessional."

Following the public confessions, a Ugandan judge forbid any further media coverage of the case.
Criticism has also extended to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki who was scolded by Kenyan High Court Justice Mohammed Warsame for allowing the irregular rendition of eight Kenyan suspects to Uganda.
But Butera insisted the case has been handled properly throughout.

"We are not acting outside any standard criminal procedure," he said, and encouraged anyone with a grievance to file it in court.
 

(Source: AFP)