NAIROBI (Reuters) – A missing Ugandan opposition activist whom the president’s son said he was holding in his basement was brought to court limping on Monday, charged with robbery and remanded to prison, opposition leader Bobi Wine and his lawyer said.
Eddie Mutwe, whose real name is Edward Ssebuufu, and who also acts as the chief bodyguard for Bobi Wine, went missing on April 27 after being grabbed close to the capital Kampala by armed men, according to his party, the National Unity Platform.
In a series of posts on X last week, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s military chief and son of Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, said he had captured Mutwe “like a grasshopper”, was holding him in his basement and threatened violence against him.
Kainerugaba is widely seen as being groomed to succeed his 80-year-old father who has ruled Uganda since 1986.
In a video posted by Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, Daily Monitor, Mutwe’s lawyer Magellan Kazibwe said his client had been produced in a chief magistrate’s court in Masaka city, 140 km (87 miles) south of the capital Kampala and charged with simple robbery and aggravated robbery.
“He (Mutwe) has told me and my colleague that he was tortured every day … they were electrocuting him,” Kazibwe said.
“He is in great pain, he has not been receiving medication, he has not accessed any doctor.”
Jacqueline Okui, the spokesperson for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Rusoke Kituuma, the police spokesperson, did not pick up calls when sought for comment. The government did not respond to requests for comment on reports of Kainerugaba’s detention of Mutwe last week.
A video posted by local broadcaster NTV Uganda on the X platform showed who it said was Eddie Mutwe limping and supported by two people as they walked him to court.
He was remanded to prison after he was charged, Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said in a post on X.
On Friday the Uganda Human Rights Commission, a government body, ordered Kainerugaba to release Mutwe, who they said had been unlawfully detained.
Museveni is expected to stand for re-election next January. His opponents and human rights activists have regularly accused his government of wide-ranging abuses including abductions and illegal detentions. Officials deny the accusations.
(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by George Obulutsa and Ros Russell)
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