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Police defy court, keep Ill MP Zaake in detention
Comment by MP Paul Mwiru on the condition of Mityana MP Francis Zaake
This has attracted broad condemnation from human rights activists who have accused the police of disrespecting lawful orders, and for blatant abuse of rights of the Member of Parliament.
Quoting a Letter of Referral by the Iran-Uganda Hospital in Naguru where Zaake had been hospitalised since his arrest last week, People Power spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi, says that the legislator is in intense pain, his body is bruised, cannot sit, and his face is swollen.
“The hospital report says his eyes can’t open, body bruised, blunt force exerted he’s in much pain. Police said he wasn’t tortured,but the truth is coming out,” Ssenyonyi said.
Although the Iran-Uganda hospital had referred the legislator for better treatment in Nsambya, the police yesterday arraigned him before the Chief Magistrate in Nakawa, who ordered him to be taken for treatment.
The brief twitter statement by the judiciary on the conduct of the police
His lawyers say however that instead of obeying court orders issued earlier in Nakawa, the Police instead took him to Mityana where another judge Ellias Kakooza, the chief magistrate of Mityana also ordered that he be treated before he can be formally charged.
Instead, according to Ssenyonyi and Busiro East MP Medard Lubega Sseggona, who is one of Zaake’s lawyers, the Police defied the second court order, and instead took him back to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in Kireka, where had been tortured initially, and is where he spent the night of Monday 27.
The Iran-Uganda hospital referred Zaake for further treatment at Nsambya hospital bse his condition worsened. The hospital report says his eyes can’t open,body bruised,blunt force exerted&he’s in much pain. Police said he wasn’t tortured,but the truth is coming out.
Sseggona disputed the purported directive by President Yoweri Museveni that whoever is caught distributing food during the ongoing lockdown, will be charged with manslaughter.
According Ssenyonyi, Zaake was picked from his home where he was packing food for distribution to vulnerable people at his village in Buswabulongo Mityana using boda bodas.
A number of people have opined that the torture being meted out against Zaake suggests the authorities are trying to make scores against the legislator who escaped death along with Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi when they were campaigning in Arua two years ago.
Ssenyonyi has published a number of video evidence on his twitter account show that many other politicians including ministers in President Museveni’s cabinet who were captured distributing food to their constituents but have not faced the same treatment as Zaake.
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