Johannesburg – Ugandan authorities have declared an international lawyer hired by popular singer, political activist and critic of President Yoweri Museveni, Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, persona non-grata, the Daily Monitor reported on Monday.
Canadian lawyer Robert Amsterdam is one of the lawyers acting for Kyagulanyi who is in custody facing treason charges and is expected to appear before a Gulu court on Monday for a bail hearing.
The treason charges against Kyadondo East MP Kyagulanyi and 32 others follow recent clashes in Arua during a by-election campaign which saw Museveni’s motorcade stoned and Kyagulanyi’s driver shot dead by security forces.
Amsterdam’s role is supposed to be technical, advisory and to involve research.
Attempts by journalists to get confirmation on Amsterdam being banned from entering Uganda were unsuccessful with various government departments referring the media on to other official departments.
Over the weekend Amsterdam penned an article ‘Uganda’s brutal treatment of MPs is enabled by global indifference’ in the British media and called for visa bans and targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for committing human rights abuses in the country.
“These types of individualised sanctions are a very effective deterrent against future attacks on human rights, while limiting the collateral damage to innocent citizens,” Amsterdam wrote.