AFTER spending eleven days on house arrest, a Ugandan high court, Monday, ordered the release of opposition leader, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
Justice Michael Elubu ruled that the residence of the 38-year-old musician was not a detention centre.
Elubu stated that proper charges should be instituted against Wine if found to have disrupted public peace, rather than being placed him on an indefinite house arrest.
“The continued indefinite restriction and confinement of the applicant to his home is unlawful and his right to liberty has been infringed. Having found that the restrictions are unlawful it is hereby ordered that they are lifted,” Elubu ruled during the session.
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Although Solomon Muita, spokesperson for the Ugandan Justice Ministry, confirmed the court order, he said he was yet to get the details of the ruling.
“The ruling was made today that the security forces being at Bobi Wine’s place was unlawful, I am yet to get details of the ruling but the judge ordered that the security forces need to leave his premises immediately,” Muita said.
Wine was last seen in public on Thursday 14, January 2020, after voting at the Ugandan presidential elections in his local government.
A day after the election, he tweeted that his residence was on under siege by the military who jumped the fence to gain access into his home.
“We are under siege. The military has jumped over the fence and has now taken control of our home,” Wine tweeted.
The United States ambassador to Uganda, Natalie Brown, was also denied access to visit Wine.
Brown had earlier announced the decision of the United States government not to observe the election due to denial of ‘more than 75 per cent’ of its accreditation requests.
Like the United States, the European Union also announced its decision not to send observers to the Eastern African country due to recurrent failure to heed her previous advice on making the Ugandan Electoral Commission independent and ensuring a free and fair process.
The ICIR had reported how the incumbent president, Youveri Museveni, used violent tactics to secure another term in office after ruling the country for 35 years.
During the electioneering period, Museveni ordered a ban on social media in Uganda following an unfavourable Twitter hashtag #We are removing a dictator#.
The Ugandan electoral commission declared Museveni winner of the election keenly contested amidst violence.
According to Uganda’s electoral commission on Saturday afternoon, Museveni won the election with 58.64 percent of the total votes cast while his main challenger, Wine, garnered 34.83 percent of the total votes cast.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94