A trove of testimonies from greater than 200 individuals who accuse senior Ugandan officers, together with the president and his son, of torture, killings and different crimes towards humanity has been submitted to the Worldwide Prison Court docket in The Hague, a lawyer for the complainants mentioned on Tuesday.
The submitting is an effort to carry worldwide scrutiny to what human rights observers have referred to as a brutal authorities crackdown on opposition teams and activists within the East African nation within the months earlier than and after the nation’s bloody 2021 elections.
The briefing accuses 9 prime Ugandan officers of abuses, together with President Yoweri Museveni, who has dominated the nation with an iron grip for nearly 4 many years, and his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who has been maneuvering to succeed his father.
A complete of 26 officers are accused of aiding and abetting the incarceration and systematic abuse of Ugandans, significantly supporters of the musician turned opposition chief Bobi Wine, a presidential candidate within the 2021 election.
The workplace of the Ugandan president didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Andrew Mwenda, a spokesman for the president’s son, mentioned in a textual content message: “Had been they tortured? YES! Who directed it? We have to discover out. It is smart for them to accuse a son of the president because it will increase the profile of their case and likewise boosts their political wrestle towards” the president.
It may possibly take months, and even years, for the Worldwide Prison Court docket, or I.C.C., to announce whether or not it’ll take up a case for investigation. Karim Khan, the courtroom’s chief prosecutor, beforehand mentioned that his workplace is brief on workers and finances, and overwhelmed with investigations, together with allegations of battle crimes in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
The prosecutor could also be reluctant to research the Uganda allegations, some analysts mentioned. The courtroom has been closely criticized for prosecuting the vast majority of its circumstances in African international locations, though some had been opened on the request of African governments.
The submitting was proven to The New York Occasions by Bruce I. Afran, a lawyer based mostly in Princeton, N.J., whose group gathered the testimonies. He additionally represents a number of main opposition figures in Uganda.
Within the paperwork, activists, opposition leaders and authorities critics described being waterboarded, whipped and stabbed, having chemical compounds thrown at them or being pressured to lie down subsequent to corpses.
The submitting accuses Mr. Museveni of bearing direct duty for the torture as a result of he’s the commander of the armed forces.
The accusations may intensify criticism of Mr. Museveni’s authorities, which not too long ago handed a sweeping anti-gay regulation that rights teams contemplate among the many most punitive on this planet.
An I.C.C. investigation may additionally complicate the politics of succession in Uganda forward of the 2026 elections. Basic Kainerugaba, 49, has made it clear he needs to exchange his 78-year-old father. However he has irked the older man with provocative tweets, together with floating the concept of invading Kenya.
Uganda has been a celebration to the Rome Statute that established the I.C.C. since 2002 — though Mr. Museveni has criticized the courtroom and threatened to drag out.
Tom Maliti, a researcher who has monitored circumstances on the I.C.C., mentioned, “The prosecutor’s workplace is very conscious of the criticism that they’ve been specializing in Africa.”
The courtroom’s circumstances towards authorities officers in Africa haven’t been profitable, he famous, including that any prosecution must depend on the cooperation of the Ugandan authorities to gather proof and interview potential witnesses.
Most of these offering testimony are nameless as a result of many are nonetheless in Uganda, Mr. Afran mentioned. However a number of others, who sought asylum in Europe or america, are named. They embrace Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, a outstanding author, and Amos Katumba, the founding father of a nongovernmental group who has partnered with Mr. Wine on tasks.
Many testified that safety forces had damaged into their houses and arrested them, or whisked them away on the road into unmarked vans. They mentioned they had been overwhelmed, burned with sizzling irons, electrocuted, made to eat feces, pressured to drink urine or had their tooth eliminated.
Mr. Museveni has acknowledged that tons of of what he referred to as “terrorists” and “lawbreakers” had been arrested through the election season, and that an elite commando unit led on the time by his son had “killed a number of.”
4 victims, together with Mr. Rukirabashaija, say within the briefing that the president’s son went to see them in detention. Mr. Rukirabashaija, who has written two books satirizing the president and the ruling celebration, was arrested in late 2021 after he mocked the president’s son on social media.
Mr. Rukirabashaija informed The Occasions final yr that he had been whipped and his thighs plucked with pliers in jail, the place Basic Kainerugaba visited him thrice. On Tuesday, the overall’s spokesman denied the 2 had ever met.
When he was launched final yr, Mr. Rukirabashaija fled the nation and now lives in Germany.
“The rule of regulation in Uganda doesn’t operate as a result of the courts are subservient to the federal government,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview on Tuesday. “I hope we will now discover justice.”
Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Breval, France.