Ugandan MP Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has been left unable to stand after being beaten while in detention, his lawyer said.
“We believe the ribs on the right side are crushed. He was beaten with a metal bar,” Robert Amsterdam, one of Kyagulanyi’s attorneys told Reuters adding that: “He’s unable to stand.”
The Ugandan government, through its spokesman Ofwono Opondo has, however, dismissed the claims.
“That’s rubbish,” Opondo said. “If (Amsterdam) is indeed Bobi Wine’s lawyer, let him go to the detention facility and apply to see him and establish for himself whether his ribs are crushed.”
A spokesman for Amsterdam said he had not yet been able to travel to Kampala but that a member of his law firm had arrived and that he was in touch with the Kyagulanyi and the local legal team “on an hourly basis”.
The spokesman added that direct access to Bobi Wine had been “severely restricted”.
Meanwhile, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has said it will sue the Ugandan government at the East African Court of Justice for human rights violation in the detention of Bobi Wine.
“We call upon the governments of East African states, including Kenya, to apply pressure on Uganda to comply with these demands and respect international human rights instruments,” LSK Nairobi Chairman Charles Kanjama said.
In a Press briefing in Nairobi on Wednesday, LSK demanded that Uganda ” immediately and unconditionally” release from military detention.
“We are also working with the East Africa Law Society, to also seek to engage in further legal action both in the courts in Uganda and East Africa Court of Justice and any other court, so that the truth of what has happened in Uganda can come to light and to show solidarity with people of Uganda,” Kanjama added.
“We also call on the Government of Uganda to ensure that Hon. Kyagulanyi receives adequate medical treatment as required by his state of health, by a doctor of the family’s choosing,” the LSK Chairman added.
