Thursday, November 14, 2024 - A court in Uganda has convicted a 21-year-old Tiktoker for calling for the public flogging of President Yoweri Museveni on TikTok.
Emmanuel Nabugodi, who created a video depicting a mock
Museveni trial, faces up to seven years in prison for “spreading hate speech”
against the head of state.
He pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and was remanded in custody at the notorious Kigo maximum security prison near Kampala until November 18, when he will be sentenced.
State attorney Paul Aheebwa Byamukama said prosecutors have asked the Entebbe
court to impose a seven-year sentence.
Nabugodi is the fourth Ugandan to appear in court and be
remanded in custody in the last two days for insulting the president
and his family.
In July, another 21-year-old TikToker was sentenced to six
years in prison for insulting Museveni, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist
since he toppled president Milton Obote in 1986.
Award-winning author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested in
late 2021 and charged with insulting Museveni and his powerful son Muhoozi
Kainerugaba who many Ugandans believe is positioning himself to take over from
his 80-year-old father.
Rukirabashaija was awarded the 2021 PEN Pinter Prize for an
International Writer of Courage, which is presented annually to a writer who
has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs.
He said he was tortured during his month-long detention in
Uganda and fled into exile in Germany.
In 2020, four members of a comedy troupe were jailed when
they released a video sarcastically calling on Ugandans to pray for their
leaders, including Museveni, the police chief and the head of prisons.
An online campaign demanding their release led to the
charges being dropped.
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