A prominent Ugandan writer and critic of long-ruling leader Yoweri Museveni has been charged with communications offences related to tweets critical of the president and his son.
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been in military detention since December 28, when armed men broke into his house and took him away.
His lawyer said he has been tortured and that at one time he was urinating blood. Police and military have not responded to the allegations of torture.
He was charged with “offensive communication”, the charge sheet saying his tweets in December were critical of Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerubaga, a general and commander of land forces in the military.
Rukirabashaija, the charge sheet said, “wilfully and repeatedly used his Twitter handle ... to disturb the peace of his Excellency the president of Uganda General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with no purpose of legitimate communication”.
I’m alarmed by reports of alleged torture and incommunicado detention of author @KakwenzaRukira.
— Eamon Gilmore, EU special representative for human rights
He was remanded and is expected to be brought to court again on January 21. Rukirabashaija has written several books, but his most acclaimed is a satirical novel, The Greedy Barbarian, for which he won the PEN Pinter Prize International Writer of Courage award last year.
The novel tackles themes of corruption and greed, and has widely been interpreted in Uganda to refer to the political life of Museveni. He has previously been arrested and questioned by the military about whether the novel was about Museveni.
His detention and allegations of torture have drawn criticism and pressure to release him from local activists and international diplomats and rights defenders, including the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Jim Risch, and Eamon Gilmore, EU special representative for human rights.
“I’m alarmed by reports of alleged torture and incommunicado detention of author @KakwenzaRukira,” Gilmore tweeted on January 5, demanding his release.
Days before he was detained, Rukirabashaija posted several comments critical of Museveni and Kainerubaga, including one in which he said Kainerubaga was “obese”, assailed his military credentials and denounced purported plans to have him succeed his father.
— Reuters
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