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Sixteen members of an opposition party were convicted by a Ugandan military tribunal on Monday for “illegal possession of explosive devices and treachery,” a ruling that has come under fire from a defence lawyer who denounced the process as unjust.
Prosecutors claimed that the 16 members of the National Unity Platform, along with other suspects still on the run, were caught with explosives between November 2020 and May 2021, during Uganda’s election season.
“The circumstances surrounding their plea of guilty to the charges they had previously denied were questionable,” Shamim Malende, a defence lawyer, told AFP.
Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine and a prominent opposition leader, alleged that the group was forced to plead guilty and seek a pardon from the president.
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The session took place without the presence of journalists, as they were barred from attending.
The 16 individuals, who have already spent four years in prison, will return to court on Wednesday for sentencing.
Uganda has been under the rule of Yoweri Museveni since 1986.
The last presidential election in 2021 was marred by allegations of fraud, and protests against the repeated arrest of Bobi Wine were violently suppressed by police, resulting in at least 54 deaths
“Whatever Museveni’s government is doing, one day all those under him, including himself, will be called to account,” Bobi Wine told AFP, stating that the accused had been “blackmailed by state agents.”
