Court in Arua clears MP Zaake of offence of "escape from custody"
Court in Arua has this morning cleared Member of Parliament for Mityana Municipality Francis Zaake of the offence of escaping from custody.
In February this year, Zaake was arrested in Kampala and transferred to Arua where he was charged for escaping lawful custody before being released on bail.
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This morning however, Arua Grade One Magistrate Swaleh Asiku ruled that the MP was not a suspect since the police managed to leave him at the hospital unguarded. He acquitted him and said he has no case to answer in that regard.
Zaake said that he was brutalised and kept in unknown places where he languished for weeks.
He said they dumped him near Rubaga hospital when they feared that he would die in their hands.
Zaake is accused alongside 34 others including MPs Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, Kassiano Wadri and Paul Mwir of stoning President Museveni’s convoy last year during the Arua Municipality by-election.
“It is alleged that on August 13, 2018, with an intent to harm the president of Uganda, you threw stones and smashed the windscreen of one of his vehicles,” reads in part the charge sheet.
Following the incident in which Museveni’s vehicle was stoned, a number of people including legislators were arrested by security agencies but they were later seen tortured while in detention.
