KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Police in Uganda confronted popular opposition candidate Bobi Wine during Thursday’s online press conference to announce a petition to the International Criminal Court over alleged abuse by security forces. He said they fired tear gas and bullets as they swarmed through his car.
Journalists watched as an officer dragged Wine out of the car, pleading that he hadn’t broken any law. “As you can see, I am being arrested,” he said to the camera, before popping noises were heard.
“You’re embarrassing the country,” Wine said to the officers. He was later allowed to finish the briefing and continue driving. He had campaigned all day, saying 23 members of his team had been arrested.
The showdown took place hours after the deadly riot in the Capitol and led to the question of whether some governments would be encouraged to push back harder against those who claim democratic ideals such as fair elections.
The singer and opposition leader announced that he is petitioning the ICC to investigate allegations of torture and other rights violations in the East African country ahead of next week’s elections. The ICC receives hundreds of such applications from all over the world every year.
Wine, 38, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has captured the imagination of many across Africa as he tries to sack the old president Yoweri Museveni, who has deployed the military to prevent what he sees as attempts by the opposition to create civil unrest that could cause regime change.
Wine and other opposition figures have called 76-year-old Museveni a dictator. “Many atrocities are being committed on Museveni’s orders,” the singer told reporters.
Government officials did not immediately comment.
Wine, arrested many times on various charges but never convicted, now says his life may be in danger. He is now campaigning while wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.
“I expect a bullet aimed at me any minute,” said Wine, who has sent his children to the United States for security reasons.
When asked by the organizer if he wanted to end the briefing, he said he felt safer with the cameras on.
At least 54 people were killed in Uganda’s capital, Kampala and other parts of the country in November, when security forces staged riots triggered by Wine’s arrest for alleged violation of campaign regulations aimed at preventing the spread of the drug. coronavirus.
Those deaths are a critical part of Wine’s petition to the ICC to investigate alleged acts of torture, mutilation and murder of civilian protesters.
Wine’s petition and two other alleged torture victims cite Museveni, Security Secretary Elly Tumwine and other security officials. The petitioners are represented by US-based lawyer Bruce Afran, who said he submitted documents to the court in The Hague on Thursday.
Tumwine “nominally issued the ‘shoot to kill’ order to target protesters who attacked the police, but the orders were deliberately directed at civilian protesters,” says the complaint, which contains eerie photos of people allegedly mutilated during election-related violence .
Wine was a popular singer before winning a seat in parliament and attracting national attention as the cap-wearing leader of a movement known as ‘People Power’. He has been arrested and sometimes beaten many times in the past year for alleged crimes such as disobeying lawful orders.
Prosecutors at the ICC may take years to reach a decision on a petition. Before deciding whether or not to conduct a preliminary investigation, they try to filter out those who are clearly not under their jurisdiction. Those who do are then assessed for admissibility – whether the crimes are serious enough to merit an ICC investigation and whether the country in question is already investigating or prosecuting the allegations.
Finally, the public prosecutors gauge whether an investigation is in the interests of the justice system.
Uganda has signed the statute establishing the ICC.
Other Ugandans citing similar rights violations have petitioned the ICC in recent years, which in December declined to prosecute a case related to alleged abuse by security forces in a 2016 confrontation with supporters of a traditional ruler.
Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986. He has defied many calls for retirement and said he has been chosen many times by Ugandans who love him. He has spoken with disdain about the ICC, calling it “a bunch of useless people.”
Ugandan polls are often marred by allegations of manipulation. The country has never experienced a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.