Novelist Kakwenza re-arrested, says lawyer
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
What you need to know:
- Charged with offensive communication, Mr Kakwenza had early January 25 successfully obtained bail from Buganda Road Court.
The author's case has attracted international attention and diplomats from the United States and the European Union were present in court on Tuesday.
Lawyers for a Ugandan writer charged with insulting the country's ruling family said their client was unlawfully detained on Tuesday in defiance of a court order for his release issued just hours earlier.
“It’s true. He has been rearrested from Kitalya Prison. The army collaborated with prison authorities to arrest him,” his lawyer Eron Kiiza told this publication on phone.
Charged with offensive communication, Mr Kakwenza had early January 25 successfully obtained bail from Buganda Road Court.
Mr Kiiza said that instead of being released, the award-winning writer was "kidnapped" from prison by men in plain clothes and taken to an unknown location.
“We saw him being driven away in a military vehicle,” Mr Kiiza said adding that he “was not aware of any new charges slapped on his client."
“A tinted numberless double cabin car has kidnapped Kakwenza Rukirabashaija from Kitalya Pison,” Kampala City Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura claimed on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate, Mr Douglas Singiza granted Mr Kakwenza a Shs500,000 cash bail and his sureties were bonded at Shs10m not cash.
Offensive tweets
Rukirabashaija was charged on January 11 with "disturbing" veteran President Yoweri Museveni and his powerful son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, in a series of unflattering Twitter posts.
In one post, he 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".
Mr Kiiza has said that multiple scars detailed in a prison medical examination of his client were "obvious marks of torture", and that his detention in December was illegal.
The United States, the EU and civil society groups have demanded his release and protection from persecution.
The author won acclaim for his 2020 satirical novel, "The Greedy Barbarian", which describes high-level corruption in a fictional country.
He was awarded the 2021 PEN Pinter Prize for an International Writer of Courage, which is presented annually to a writer who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs- Additional reporting by AFP
