TERROR, GUNS & COCAINE! Court Halts Extradition Proceedings Against Ex-AU Adviser Michael Katungi
Katungi in dock
The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court has suspended extradition proceedings against former African Union Policy Adviser Michael Katungi Mpeirwe after the High Court ordered a stay of the case pending the hearing of his application challenging the extradition.
Chief Magistrate Ritah Neumbe Kidasa halted the proceedings on Friday after being presented with an interim order issued by High Court Civil Division Judge Simon Peter Kinobe.
The United States is seeking Katungi’s extradition to face charges of conspiring with three foreign nationals to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, trafficking cocaine, and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
Katungi’s lawyer, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, said the extradition proceedings had been formally suspended while the High Court considers the defence’s application for revision. He explained that the Buganda Road Court will only mention the case until the High Court reaches a decision.
The magistrate fixed the matter for mention on July 31, 2026. However, Mbidde said the appearance will be largely procedural because the High Court has already set timelines extending into August.
According to the High Court order issued on July 15, 2026, the State must disclose all the evidence it intends to rely on, while Katungi is required to file his response and supporting affidavits by July 27. Both parties will then exchange written submissions before the High Court delivers its ruling on August 13.
Mbidde said the defence will vigorously oppose the extradition request, arguing that there are no legal or factual grounds to justify sending Katungi to the United States. He said the defence would use every available legal avenue to challenge the request and maintain that, if the allegations are supported by sufficient evidence, any trial should be conducted in Uganda rather than abroad.
He further argued that while the international narcotics convention cited by the United States creates offences related to drug trafficking, it does not impose a mandatory obligation on countries to extradite suspects accused of such offences.
The extradition request is based on an indictment issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Katungi allegedly worked with Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga in a conspiracy to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine, knowing the drugs would be smuggled into the United States.
The indictment also accuses the group of conspiring to possess machine guns and other destructive weapons to support drug trafficking and of providing material support to Mexico’s Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organisation.
Prosecutors allege that from September 2022, the group planned to supply military-grade weapons, including rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, anti-aircraft weapons and surface-to-air missile systems, to the cartel. The weapons were allegedly intended to facilitate large-scale cocaine trafficking into the United States.
The indictment further alleges that Mirchev recruited Asumo to obtain a fraudulent End-User Certificate from an African country to conceal the true destination of the weapons. Asumo is said to have recruited Katungi, who in turn enlisted Mwapinga to obtain a Tanzanian End-User Certificate. Prosecutors say the certificate was later used to facilitate the export of a test shipment of 50 AK-47 rifles, magazines and ammunition from Bulgaria.
The group is also accused of planning to supply weapons worth about 53.7 million euros (approximately 58 million U.S. dollars) using falsified documentation to disguise the intended end user. Court records further indicate that Mirchev had previously been linked to convicted international arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
Katungi, a former Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officer who previously served as Commissioner for External Affairs, has been on remand at Luzira Prison since June 29, 2026, following his arrest under a warrant issued in response to the U.S. extradition request.
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