The trial of 13 men accused of involvement in attacks that killed
76 people in Uganda nearly five years finally got under way on Tuesday.
The July 2010 suicide bombings
targeted football fans watching the World Cup final at a restaurant and a rugby
club in the capital, Kampala. Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants
claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s first outside Somalia.
On Tuesday, 13 men appeared at
Uganda’s High Court to face a range of charges including terrorism, murder and
membership of a terrorist organisation.
“The trial of the accused persons
has been long overdue,” said Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo at the opening session
of what is set to be a long trial involving dozens of charges.
Dollo said the nearly five-year
delay was because the suspects had challenged their trial, alleging illegal
rendition and torture by Uganda’s police and other security agencies.
In October the Constitutional Court
dismissed the petition, clearing the way for the trial to begin.
Dollo said the trial would now be
“fair, speedy and above board”.
The accused men — seven Kenyans,
five Ugandans and one Tanzanian — have all been charged with terrorism, murder,
attempted murder and being accessories to terrorism.
On Tuesday all but one were also
charged with belonging to the Shebab group.
The July 2010 attack was one of the
deadliest by the Shebab, who also carried out the 2013 assault on the Westgate
Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 67 people.
Uganda and Kenya contribute
thousands of soldiers to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which
was established to fight the Islamists and protect the internationally
recognised government.
Shebab continues to target both
countries. Kenya has been hit by a string of armed attacks in the remote
northeast of the county. In September Ugandan security forces seized suicide
vests and explosives during a raid on a suspected Shebab cell in Kampala.
Tuesday’s trial was adjourned until
Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment