{"id":12490,"date":"2018-08-23T10:22:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T10:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12490"},"modified":"2018-08-23T10:22:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T10:22:59","slug":"popular-ugandan-opposition-mp-charged-with-treason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12490","title":{"rendered":"Popular Ugandan opposition MP charged with treason"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Military prosecutors in Uganda<\/a>\u00a0withdrew weapons charges against jailed government critic\u00a0Robert Kyagulanyi<\/a>, a pop star turned opposition parliamentarian who goes by the stage name Bobi Wine.<\/p>\n

After the weapons charges were dropped, however, h<\/span>e was quickly re-arrested by police on Thursday and now faces potentially more serious charges of treason in a civilian court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyagulanyi, 36,\u00a0appeared<\/a>\u00a0before a military court in the capital Kampala after his arrest last week prompted large protests and clashes<\/a> with the police.<\/p>\n

His appearance was the first time the legislator had been seen in public since\u00a0his detention and there were allegations that he had been beaten while in custody. He clenched his fists and greeted supporters and walked with a limp.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Uganda pop star-turned-opposition leader Bobi Wine to face court<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

“The bogus charges have been dropped,” attorney Medard Sseggona told local broadcaster NBS. “They claim they prefer charging him with the more serious offense of treason.”<\/p>\n

The popular musician has emerged as an influential critic of\u00a0President Yoweri Museveni after winning a seat in parliament last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawmaker had been arrested with four other opposition lawmakers, three of whom face treason charges. A fifth legislator has been hospitalised with injures allegedly sustained during detention.<\/p>\n

“All along people knew he was going to appear in a military court here in Kampala but lawyers of Bobi Wine and his family were just told by the military last night that the hearing is actually going to be in Gulu,” Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi in Kampala reported.<\/p>\n

Dozens of other Ugandans have been\u00a0charged with treason<\/a>\u00a0and illegal possession of firearms\u00a0over their alleged role in the stoning of the president’s convoy after\u00a0a local election rally.<\/p>\n

In recent days, Uganda’s government has faced pressure to free Kyagulanyi, with dozens of musicians around the world speaking out against his alleged beating in detention.<\/p>\n

#FreeBobiWine<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In a statement late Wednesday, Museveni accused “unprincipled politicians” of luring youth into rioting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Responding to calls on social media to #FreeBobiWine, the president said he had no power to do so. “Let us therefore wait for the courts and see what they decide.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Museveni took power by force in 1986 and has since been elected five times. Although he has campaigned on his record of establishing peace and stability, some worry those gains are being eroded the longer he stays in power.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 74-year-old Museveni is now able to seek re-election in 2021 because parliament passed legislation last year removing a clause in the constitution that had prevented anyone over 75 from holding the presidency.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military prosecutors in Uganda\u00a0withdrew weapons charges against jailed government critic\u00a0Robert Kyagulanyi, a pop star turned opposition parliamentarian who goes by the stage name Bobi Wine. After the weapons charges were dropped, however, he was quickly re-arrested by police on Thursday and now faces potentially more serious charges of treason in a civilian court. Kyagulanyi, 36,\u00a0appeared\u00a0before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}