Uganda, AU condemn Kabuye’s arrest

Uganda was one of the first countries to condemn “in the strongest terms” the arrest in Germany of the Director General of State Protocol, Rose Kabuye on the basis of an arrest warrant by French judge Jean Louis Bruguiere. The Ugandan message was contained in a letter sent by the government of Uganda to the Rwandan embassy in Kampala today. “As an African Nation and a member of the international community, Uganda condemns in the strongest terms such an arrest as it runs counter to International Law and the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction and the African Union Assembly Decision,” the protest note addressed to the German government read in part. It added that the indictment was flawed and did not follow legal procedure. “The government of Uganda requests the government of the Federal Republic of Germany takes full cognizance of the unlawful arbitrary nature of the arrest of Ms Kabuye and the strong condemnation of African States, Uganda inclusive, that protested that arrest. We therefore support the request of the government of Rwanda for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms Kabuye.” Speaking to The New Times on phone, the Ugandan Ambassador to Rwanda, Richard Kabonero, said that the arrest was a violation and abuse of the Principles of Universal Jurisdiction. “It is unfair for a judge to sit in a place thousands of miles away and issue an arrest warrant against leaders in another place without any basis or fact,” he said. EU Development Commissioner, Louis Michel, was quoted by BBC saying that he “doubted the validity of the French report that led to her arrest and called on the French judiciary to try to establish the truth quickly.” Kabuye’s arrest also caused storms in the African Union, which said that the, “development could endanger international law, order and security.” Kabuye is currently being detained at a Frankfurt based detention facility awaiting extradition to France. In a related development, the Pan African Parliament sitting in Johannesburg last week also dismissed the universal jurisdiction principle upon which the 40 RPF members were indicted as biased and ‘political in nature’. They further noted that the abuse and misuse of indictments against African leaders have destabilising effects that will negatively impact on the political, social and economic development of member states. Ends

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Uganda, AU condemn Kabuye’s arrest