I was forced to eat pork - Muslim suspect
Hassan Haruna Luyima (2nd R) and other bomb suspects appear before the High Court in Kampala recently. Luyima said he was forced to eat pork by security operatives in trying to force him to confess his role in the 2010 Kampala bombings. PHOTO BY DOMINIC BUKENYA
Kampala- He sobbed in the court dock. Reason? Haunting memories of how security operatives allegedly forced him to eat pork yet he is a practicing Muslim.
This was the moving testimony of Hassan Haruna Luyima, one of the 2010 bomb suspects.
This happened yesterday as the 32-year-old was retracting his earlier confession statement recorded before then Nakawa magistrate Agnes Nabafu shortly that implicated him in the bombing. Luyima argued that the statement was obtained from him as a result of torture.
“The first day when I was taken to the safe house, they (security operatives) brought me chips and pork to eat. I told them that I was a Muslim and I could not eat pork…,” Luyima told court.
He added: “One of the security men known as Kuulu rebuked me, saying I should not be stupid and in the process, I was forced to eat it. My head was thereafter dipped into pork soup...”
Luyima further told court that some other two men attempted to sodomise him.
He asked court to trash the confession statement, saying he did not freely record it.
However, presiding judge Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, after listening to arguments from both the prosecution and defense lawyers, ruled that Luyima voluntarily recorded his statement.
To that effect, Luyima’s confession was tendered in court as prosecution’s exhibit to prove their case against him and other suspects. Hearing continues next Tuesday.
