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KAMPALA, UGANDA —Opposition leaders welcomed the release on bail Monday night of two legislators allied with the National Unity Platform, led by Bobi Wine.
Despite several bail applications by lawyers in recent months, the prosecutor had blocked the requests on the grounds the legislators would interfere with the investigations.
The legislators, Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammed Segirinya, were incarcerated for 17 months on charges including murder, attempted murder, and aiding and abetting terrorism. They were held despite a law requiring that suspects in criminal cases be automatically granted bail after being held for six months on remand.
Early this month, Supreme Court Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo condemned the delayed prosecution of the two legislators and demanded that the state begin their trial whether prepared or not. The chief justice warned the public prosecution office not to be an accomplice in denying anyone justice.
The leader of the opposition in parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, said the matter of the two legislators was not an issue of prosecution, but instead of persecution for their political views.
"They are out, they have temporary freedom, we can speak about ... the future. And how we shall be able to deal with the charges when they are out," Mpuuga said. "The regime that I know, if they had coherent evidence, they would have loved to have a piece of these members. But the fact that for more than one and a half years, they've not been able to piece together evidence to have them tried, for me speaks to the fact that the charges were probably politically motivated."
The charges stemmed from the men's alleged involvement in 26 killings that took place in Uganda's Central districts of Lwengo and Masaka between March and June 2021. Most of the victims were elderly members of society who were killed with machetes.
The bail applications for the two legislators were based on what their lawyers said were medical conditions that needed care, which prison facilities were not providing.
Lawyer Samuel Muyizzi said both of the just-released legislators were rushed to hospitals for urgent medical attention.
"The honorable Allan Ssewanyana was ill. And the honorable Segirinya has been on and off. And there was no sufficient medical attention as was required. So, that is why, the right thing to do immediately was to take them to a health facility and a bit of psychological care before they come out to the public," Muyizzi said.
But Frank Baine, the Uganda prisons spokesperson, told VOA that claims of ill treatment are being made simply to undermine the government's image.
"Those are their beautiful lies. They started crying over the same since these guys came to prison. They have spent a year and gone back. If the system was bad as they are, people wouldn't have made it through. But they can speculate and do political gimmicks of theirs," Baine said.
The legislators were granted bail on condition that they pay $5,460 and deposit their passports with the court. No trial date has been set.