Legal professionals for a Ugandan satirical novelist billed with insulting the country’s ruling household claimed their client was unlawfully detained in defiance of a courtroom get for his launch issued just several hours before.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was predicted to be introduced on Tuesday immediately after a court docket in Kampala had granted him bail and ordered that he not discuss to reporters before the conclusion of his trial.

Rukirabashaija, who won the PEN Pinter Prize Global Author of Braveness award past calendar year, was arrested on December 28 on costs of offending President Yoweri Museveni and his effective son on Twitter.

His attorney Eron Kiiza explained that rather of staying freed, the author was “kidnapped” from prison by gentlemen in plain apparel and taken to an unidentified place.

“About 4 hrs right after (Tuesday’s) courtroom listening to, armed men in simple clothes came to the prison and took Kakwenza absent, we feel to SFC headquarters in Entebbe,” he explained to AFP information agency, referring to the Unique Forces Command unit of Uganda’s national defence power.

“Now we need to go back again to court docket.”

Rukirabashaija, who his legal professionals say has been tortured due to the fact his arrest, appeared frail when he appeared by way of video website link for his bail listening to.

A jail guard instructed justice of the peace Douglas Singiza that Rukirabashaija was “complaining of pain” and questioned to continue being seated for the hearing.

In granting bail, Singiza ordered that prosecutors full their enquiries into the case by Friday and be ready to point out their place at the upcoming listening to on February 1.

He set a cash bail of 500,000 Ugandan shillings ($140) and ordered the 33-yr-old novelist to surrender his passport.

The magistrate also warned Rukirabashaija that if he spoke to the push prior to the circumstance was finished his bail would “automatically collapse” and he would be returned to prison.

Right after the listening to, Kiiza instructed journalists he did not consider condition prosecutors would be completely ready to present their circumstance.

“I doubt it will go to total demo,” he stated.

Reacting to the information, PEN Global unveiled a statement on Twitter saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the function and that it feared for the writer’s life. It added that the organisation held the president and his son accountable for these kinds of “flagrant abuse of office”.

“Peaceful expression of uncomfortable sights is not a crime,” PEN International claimed on social media.

The firm holds president @KagutaMuseveni, his son @mkainerugaba and the @updf_ accountable for this flagrant abuse of place of work and #Uganda‘s legal guidelines, and for any harm to @KakwenzaRukira. Tranquil expression of awkward sights is not a criminal offense. #FreeKakwenza unconditionally.

— PEN Worldwide (@pen_int) January 25, 2022

‘The Greedy Barbarian’

Rukirabashaija has prepared a number of textbooks, together with his famed The Greedy Barbarian, a satirical novel about a fictional state that tackles themes of corruption and greed.

The novel is greatly found in Uganda to mirror the political existence of Museveni, 77, and his governing administration.

Rukirabashaija has been significant of Museveni, who has dominated the state considering that 1986, and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, a navy common commonly found as becoming ready to consider about the presidency from his father.

Days in advance of his arrest, Rukirabashaija called Kainerugaba in a tweet “pigheaded” and “plump” and denounced the purported options to have him thrive his father.

Kiiza has claimed that numerous scars detailed in a jail healthcare evaluation of his client were “obvious marks of torture”, and that his detention in December was unlawful.

More than the last two many years, Rukirabashaija has been arbitrarily arrested two times and detained incommunicado.

In April 2020, he was arrested at his property and detained for 7 days. PEN Intercontinental claimed that “although the whole interrogation was reportedly about the contents of his novel, he was presented in court on 21 April 2020 and charged with violating COVID-19 health and fitness regulations”.

He was arrested once more in September 2020 and questioned about his second book, in which he described the torture he was subjected to during his initially detention.

The scenario of the award-successful author has drawn worldwide consideration with the United States, the EU and civil society teams demanding his release and security from persecution.