National Unity Platform (NUP) party president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has accused the government of coercing political prisoners to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters in Kavule-Makerere, Kampala, on Tuesday, Bobi Wine said that three political prisoners — Paul Muwanguzi, Siraj Obalai, and Joseph Muganza — who appeared before the court martial on Monday, have pleaded guilty to crimes they had been denying for over three years since their arrest.
The NUP leader claimed that the regime promised money and houses to political prisoners who were willing to plead guilty and implicate him.
“The regime — whenever they reached out to them in prison — was promising them money and houses if they could yield to what they (the regime) were requesting them to do: first to plead guilty and then to implicate us, especially myself, in crimes that even they themselves didn’t commit,” he said, before adding that they (NUP) sympathize with those who pleaded guilty.
The NUP leader also stated that six prisoners had written to the NUP lawyers asking them to stop representing them, as they would now be represented by lawyers from the army.
“We are informed that regime emissaries have been secretly reaching out to these comrades and their relatives, threatening them with even harsher punishment if they do not plead guilty to the charges fabricated against them. The emissaries also kept harassing them to drop the Party lawyers who have been representing them in exchange for military lawyers,” he said
The three who pleaded guilty are part of a group of about 32 prisoners who were charged with possession of ammunition. The group has been battling the charges for over three years.
