Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A week after their arrest, eight editors and directors of one of Uganda’s most popular tabloid newspaper groups are in court to face “treason” charges over an article implicating President Yoweri Museveni in a plot to overthrow his Rwandan counterpart.
The Red Pepper editors and directors are at Buganda Road Court, from where they were driven from Nalufenya where they have been detained since last week.
The eight were arrested Tuesday during a police raid on the offices of the privately owned English-language Red Pepper and its local-language sister publications.
Soon after, the treason charge, which carries a possible seven-year jail term, was lodged against them.
The controversial article, published last Monday, said Museveni was plotting to overthrow his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
“The charges include treason, offensive communication and disturbing the peace of the president,” Dickens Byamukama, one of the detained journalists’ lawyers, told AFP. “All the staff denied the charges,” he added.
Among those being held is Red Pepper’s CEO Richard Tusiime as well as chief editors and the financial director of the group.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned the “absolutely disproportionate” response and called for the journalists to be immediately released.
Byamukama said the newspaper’s offices had been sealed up and phones, laptops and other equipment confiscated
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via: Independent
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