Bobi Wine Accuses Government of Coercion as 3 NUP Members Forced to Plead Guilty

National Unity Platform (NUP) party president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has accused the regime of coercing political prisoners to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit.

Bobi Wine said on Tuesday that the regime had promised money and houses to political prisoners who were willing to plead guilty and implicate him.

“The regime —whenever they reached out to them in prison— was promising them money and houses if they could yield to what they (regime) were requesting them to do; first to plead guilty and then implicate us, especially myself, in crimes that even themselves didn’t commit,” he said.

However, his remarks come a day after 3 NUP political prisoners pleaded guilty to charges of treachery and possession of ammunition that had been levelled against them.

The three are Paul Muwanguzi, Siraj Obalai and Joseph Muganza who appeared before the court martial on Monday.

These were remanded by Brig Gen. Robert Freeman until September 16th, 2024 when their case will be heard again.

Bobi said they (NUP) sympathise with those that pleaded guilty because everyone has a limit of resistance and that those who pleaded guilty had perhaps reached their resistance peak.

“Of course, we sympathise with these political prisoners. We understand their plight and we understand that everyone has a certain level of resistance. Probably some of these comrades could not resist beyond 3 or 4 years in prison and that is how they sold out,” he added.

NUP’s president said some of those that pleaded guilty had got ‘really desperate’ and cautioned them to be careful because they are now potential targets of the regime.

The three are part of a group of about 32 prisoners that were charged with possession of ammunition. Prosecution alleges that between November 2020 and May 2021, the accused were in possession of 13 pieces of explosive devices.

The group has been battling with the charges for over three years now.

According to Section 31 of the firearms act, unlawful possession of ammunition carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.