Ugandan writer charged over tweets against Museveni, son..
A court in Uganda on Tuesday charged a prominent author and government critic with “disturbing” the country’s President Yoweri Museveni and his son in unflattering social media posts.
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was brought to court and charged with two counts of “offensive communication” and remanded in prison until January 21, said Charles Twine, spokesman for the Police Criminal Investigations Department.
Rukirabashaija, who last year won an international award for persecuted writers, was arrested at his home on December 28 and allegedly tortured after posting on Twitter about Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In one post, the satirical writer had described Kainerugaba — a general who many Ugandans believe is positioning himself to take over from his 77-year-old father — as “obese” and a “curmudgeon”.
His defence team protested that Tuesday’s hearing was carried out “secretly” without his lawyers being notified, a move it claimed was to allow “torture signs to heal”.
“It was not only his lawyers that were locked out of the formal charging, so too were his family, potential sureties and the media… setting the scene for using the court as an instrument for political persecution,” his lawyer Eron Kiiza said in a statement.
“Without his lawyers, he could not apply for bail or pursue his other legal remedies.”
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