{"id":15746,"date":"2018-09-20T12:27:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T12:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15746"},"modified":"2018-09-20T12:27:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T12:27:02","slug":"ugandan-pop-star-mp-bobi-wine-arrested-on-arrival-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15746","title":{"rendered":"Ugandan pop star MP Bobi Wine arrested on arrival: lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"103\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">Ugandan pop star opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu was escorted by police to his home after arriving back in the country on Thursday but he was not under arrest, a police official said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, told Reuters news agency that Ssentamu, a prominent critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was &#8220;just being taken home&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Earlier his US-based lawyer Robert Amsterdam said on Twitter that the singer was &#8220;unlawfully detained by military officers&#8221; after the musician arrived home from the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ssentamu had sought treatment in the US for injuries allegedly sustained during state torture, which Uganda&#8217;s government denies.<\/p>\n<p>Police arrested the singer&#8217;s brother and at least two other people who were driving to the airport, without explanation, lawyer Asuman Basalirwa said.<\/p>\n<p>The singer, who won a national assembly seat last year, faces treason charges over his alleged role in an incident last month in which the president&#8217;s convoy was pelted with stones. He denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year old musician-turned-lawmaker, is widely seen as posing a significant challenge to Museveni, who has ruled the East African country since 1986.<\/p>\n<p>His message &#8211; that young Ugandans need a dynamic new head of state to tackle the myriad problems they face &#8211; has electrified citizens who say they are fed up with corruption, unemployment, and state repression of dissent.<\/p>\n<p>The government denies allegations of corruption and of stifling opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Security forces sealed off roads and erected barricades around Entebbe airport leading up to his return. Helicopters flew overhead.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities banned rallies to welcome Ssentamu home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>\n            SOURCE: <span>Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ugandan pop star opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu was escorted by police to his home after arriving back in the country on Thursday but he was not under arrest, a police official said. The official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, told Reuters news agency that Ssentamu, a prominent critic of President&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15746","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\/15746","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=15746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}