Police says arrested Rwandan 'refugees' could face terrorism charges
Police has cleared the air on a group of forty five group of people of Rwandan origin arrested at the Kikagati border trying to cross over to Tanzania for a christian fellowship.
The group is detained at Nalufenya, a high profile police detention facility in Jinja District.
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Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima has said that their investigations have pointed out to a number of offences committed by the group.
"They were arrested at the border traveling with forged documents and fake identities. Two suspects were arrested in Kampala and are their collaborators,"Kayima said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
"These individuals are not innocent. Police has found out that they are culpable of more serious offences other than forgery including terrorism."
The group through their lawyers last week filed a complaint before Jinja Chief Magistrate's court citing detention for more than the 48 hours mandatory by the law adding that they should be brought before court and charged.
However in response, the police mouthpiece said in a statement that investigations into their case have been completed but noted that the delay in arraigning the suspects before courts of law has been occasioned by the festive season .
"The team has completed investigations ,pending perusal and prosecution by the DPP .The delay in court has been to a large measure due to festive season."
Kayima however noted that the group's detention at Nalufenya is legal because it is a gazetted place of detention for high profile suspects.
According to the police publicist, the crimes committed by the group happened in various parts of the country and that no one region has complete jurisdiction over them.
"Moreover being a large number involved in the same offences it is more convenient to and efficient to manage them in one place."
He however denied that the 45 suspects are refugees from Nakivale refugee camp, adding that they are Rwandan national who migrated to Uganda and have been living in various parts of the country .
These developments come at a time when the relationship between Uganda and her neighbour in the South West, Rwanda is frosty following allegations of kidnap of Rwandan dissidents and repatriated to be handed over to the Kigali government to face a number of charges.
Nine people including senior police officers are currently facing related charges for kidnapping and repatriating Lt.Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard to Rwandan president Paul Kagame to Rwanda in 2013.
They are facing charges before the General Court Martial in Makindye.
