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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
- Creator Norman Tumuhimbise was resulting from launch a e-book essential of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni earlier than his arrest.
- He and a feminine journalist have been tortured earlier than being charged with cyber stalking.
- Uganda has witnessed a collection of crackdowns aimed toward stamping out dissent.
Ugandan writer and activist Norman Tumuhimbise and a feminine journalist have been charged with cyber stalking the nation’s president, their lawyer informed AFP Thursday, the second author to be arrested by the authorities not too long ago.
Tumuhimbise, who heads native strain group The Different Motion and a web-based media platform Different Digitalk TV, was resulting from launch a e-book essential of President Yoweri Museveni on March 30.
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The 36-year-old was amongst 9 journalists arrested for offensive communication every week in the past. Seven have been launched with out being charged, his lawyer Eron Kiiza mentioned.
Kiiza informed AFP:
Norman Tumuhimbise and his colleague, Farida Bikobere, who works with him at Digitalk TV, have been charged with cyber-stalking the president.
Following Wednesday’s listening to, “The 2 denied the costs and have been remanded to Luzira jail till March 21,” he mentioned, referring to a maximum-security facility within the capital Kampala.
“Each have been tortured like the opposite journalists with whom they have been arrested.”
In response to court docket paperwork seen by AFP, prosecutors allege Tumuhimbise and Bikobere used their on-line platform to relay “offensive communication… directed towards the particular person of the President of Uganda”.
Tumuhimbise and his colleagues have been reportedly bundled right into a van by armed safety personnel final week, with Kiiza alleging that police additionally confiscated telephones, laptops, recorders and cameras from the media outlet.
Tumuhimbise is the second author to be charged with offensive communication in current months.
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Award-winning Ugandan writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija fled to Germany final month to hunt medical remedy after allegedly having been tortured following his detention on expenses of insulting Museveni and his son.
Rukirabashaija’s arrest had raised worldwide concern, with each the European Union and the US calling for his launch.
The costs towards Rukirabashaija associated to unflattering feedback on Twitter about Museveni, who has dominated Uganda since 1986, and his highly effective son Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In a single submit he described Kainerugaba, a common who many Ugandans consider is positioning himself to take over from his 77-year-old father, as “overweight” and a “curmudgeon”.
Uganda has witnessed a collection of crackdowns aimed toward stamping out dissent, with journalists attacked, attorneys jailed, election screens prosecuted and opposition leaders violently muzzled.
If convicted, Tumuhimbise and Bikobere danger a 12 months in jail and/or a positive, beneath the pc misuse act.
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