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A 70-year-old man is facing treason charges in Uganda over claims he stoned President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade on August 13, 2018.
According to The East African, Omar Risasi Amabua was arrested in Arua Town, Northern Uganda, moments after he answered summons to record a statement.
The daily reports that Amabua was arrested on Tuesday and transferred to Gulu - 248 kilometers away from Arua - on Wednesday.
“We arrested him because he was implicated in last year’s fracas where the President’s car was stoned,” West Nile Regional Police Commander Christopher Barugahare was quoted saying.
A move protested by Forum for Democratic Change party’s Kassiano Wadri who won the contested Arua Municipality parliamentary by-election where Amabua's crime is alleged to have been commited.
“The arrest of the Mzee is madness and total witch-hunt. That venue of my last rally was far from the road. Did the Mzee use magic to stone Museveni’s car?” said Wadri.
Arua chaos
President Museveni was in last-minute campaigns in Arua, mobilizing support for NRM candidate Nusura Tiperu but ran into opposition supporters.
The supporters allegedly pelted a vehicle in the motorcade carrying Museveni’s luggage with stones and smashed the rear windshield.
A crackdown following the incident saw MP Wadri and Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine alongside 31 others charged with treason.
On being released on bail, Bobi Wine claimed that he was tortured by security forces while in detention.
“They beat me, punched me and kicked me with their boots. No part of my body was spared. They wrapped me in a thick piece of cloth and bundled me into a vehicle.
“Those guys did to me unspeakable things in that vehicle! They pulled my manhood and squeezed my testicles while punching me with objects I didn’t see,” he wrote.
