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 in opposition to 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 known 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: “Have been they tortured? YES! Who directed it? We have to discover out. It is sensible for them to accuse a son of the president because it will increase the profile of their case and likewise boosts their political battle in opposition to” the president.
It may take months, and even years, for the Worldwide Prison Court docket, or I.C.C., to announce whether or not it can take up a case for investigation. Karim Khan, the court docket’s chief prosecutor, beforehand mentioned that his workplace is brief on workers and funds, and overwhelmed with investigations, together with allegations of warfare crimes in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
The prosecutor could also be reluctant to research the Uganda allegations, some analysts mentioned. The court docket has been closely criticized for prosecuting nearly all of its instances in African international locations, despite the fact that some have been opened on the request of African governments.
The submitting was proven to The New York Instances by Bruce I. Afran, a lawyer based mostly in Princeton, N.J., whose workforce 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 substances thrown at them or being pressured to lie down subsequent to corpses.
The submitting accuses Mr. Museveni of bearing direct accountability 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 lately handed a sweeping anti-gay regulation that rights teams think about 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. Normal Kainerugaba, 49, has made it clear he desires to interchange 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 — despite the fact that Mr. Museveni has criticized the court docket and threatened to drag out.
Tom Maliti, a researcher who has monitored instances on the I.C.C., mentioned, “The prosecutor’s workplace is very conscious of the criticism that they’ve been specializing in Africa.”
The court docket’s instances in opposition to 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 the US, are named. They embrace Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, a distinguished author, and Amos Katumba, the founding father of a nongovernmental group who has partnered with Mr. Wine on initiatives.
Many testified that safety forces had damaged into their properties and arrested them, or whisked them away on the road into unmarked vans. They mentioned they have been crushed, burned with sizzling irons, electrocuted, made to eat feces, pressured to drink urine or had their tooth eliminated.
Mr. Museveni has acknowledged that a whole bunch of what he known 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 just a few.”
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 get together, was arrested in late 2021 after he mocked the president’s son on social media.
Mr. Rukirabashaija advised The Instances final yr that he had been whipped and his thighs plucked with pliers in jail, the place Normal 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 telephone interview on Tuesday. “I hope we will now discover justice.”
Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Breval, France.
