According to Daily Monitor, National Unity Platform (NUP) party leaders have said they have finally seen the Turkish-based government critic, Fred Lumbuye, after weeks of being held incommunicado.
Nkunyingi Muwada, the Kyandondo East MP, yesterday confirmed to Daily Monitor in a WhatsApp audio call that he had seen Lumbuye in Kocaeli Foreigners Detention Centre in Turkey where he has been held on charges of expired visa and overstay in the country. “We have signed a document with him and our lawyer in this country. I met him last evening and seems to be bored but in good health,” Muwada, who is also the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, said on September 9.
As it is stated in an article on Independent, it was believed Lumbuye was arrested by Turkish authorities with the go-ahead of their Ugandan counterparts.
"Before his disappearance, in July, Lumbuye had been cited by some sections of the public for allegedly spreading rumours on social media regarding President Museveni. Museveni reacted furiously to the rumours and demanded for a manhunt for whoever was responsible. Now the President’s angry reaction is believed to be the reason for Lumbuye’s disappearance and fear among the opposition.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
Ugandan blogger and government critic Fred Lumbuye, who has been living in Turkey since 2013, had not been heard from since he had been taken into custody on August 4, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Lumbuye, who has been critical of President Yoweri Museveni, is facing 15 different charges in Uganda.
After he had gone missing, Lumbuye’s friends Umar and Melissa expressed their concerns that he might have been deported. “If he is deported, they will murder him,” they stated.
The MP from the opponent party in Uganda, Nkunyingi Muwada, had made a statement on his social media account on August 31, announcing that he met with the Turkish Ambassador Fikret Kerem Alp, who works in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. “Lumbuye is in Turkey, but not in prison, at the immigration center,” he had stated.
