Neo-liberal dictatorial states and the devilish strongholds of torture : High court in Kampala awarded Shs 250 million to Simon Peter Odongo for being tortured Internal Security Organisation (ISO) operative

 

He was shot in the leg before his wife and kids, his wife was forced to clean the blooded floor, the victim had a forced catheterization and was discharging blood and pus in his urine

https://www.thegrapevine.co.ug/he-was-shot-in-the-leg-before-his-wife-and-kids-his-wife-was-forced-to-clean-the-bloodied-floor-city-lawyer-narrates-how-iso-boss-was-brutally-arrested/    

 When Museveni’s MPs violate COVID-19 directives with impunity and go away with it: Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake tortured by Museveni’s Neo-liberal dictatorial regime for distributing food to hungry residents: Distributing food to your hungry neighbors is tantamount to the crime of attempted murder

https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2020/05/if-zaake-can-be-tortured-in-custody.html 

Neo-liberal Uganda forces were created to protect markets and not people : Police and Army Officers mercilessly beat up pregnant women in COVID-19 Lockdown

https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2020/04/neo-liberal-uganda-forces-were-created.html

For the past several decades, a New World Order has been emerging. The model calls for most of the nations of the world to be divided into two parts - an elite class of political / economic "managers," which in most countries approximates about 20 percent of the population, and a "worker-serf" class, which makes up the remaining 80 percent of the population. The "managers" rule the country at the behest and in the interest of American corporate power, which itself is sustained by the machinations and intrigues of the CIA, which in turn is backed up by the guns of the American military. It is an Orwellian realm of "Newspeak" in which there is very little connection between perception and reality; where "freedom" means "slavery;" "democracy" means rule of the many by the few in the interest of corporate profits; and ORGANIZED religion is utilized as a significant and extremely consequential instrument of state control.For the eighty percent of the population which falls into the "worker-serf" category, it is a notably cruel and utterly despotic system. It's held together in two ways: first, by police forces given to fascist-like brutality, torture, terror, and, on extreme occasions, the use of death squads; and second, by an ORGANIZED religious system which has mastered "magic," "mysticism," and Pavlovian psychological techniques. S.R shearer

Court awards Shs 250m to tortured ISO spy

https://observer.ug/news/headlines/65448-court-awards-shs-250m-to-tortured-iso-spy 

June 28, 2020

 

Written by URN

 

 The High court in Kampala has awarded Shs 250 million to a tortured Internal Security Organisation (ISO) operative, Simon Peter Odongo, who was, on May 5 this year, arrested from his home for allegedly brandishing a gun at UPDF soldiers.

Before his arrest, it was alleged that UPDF soldiers who were on duty distributing food to vulnerable people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Kampala, were accosted by Odongo who was in the company of two other people.


Eventually, the soldiers withdrew and alerted their superiors who organized a joint force of the police and the UPDF who arrested Odongo. He was reportedly kept at the Police Special Investigation Unit at Kireka as investigations into the matter commenced.

While in the hands of the police and the military, according to documents before the court, that he was tortured and also denied access to his family and doctors.

His wife Caroline Odongo Turyatemba filed for habeas corpus [to be produced in court dead or alive] orders which were granted by justice Michael Elubu who was hearing the matter on June 2.
However, the attorney general, the police and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) who were the respondents in the matter, failed to produce him on the decreed date.

This prompted another application by Turyatemba whose ruling was delivered Friday by Dr Alex Mushabe Karocho, the deputy registrar on behalf of the judge.
“It’s hereby ordered that the subject of the application Simon Peter Odongo has suffered infringement of his fundamental rights of freedom from torture… His right to liberty was infringed,” the court observed.

As a recourse, the court ordered that the respondents to pay Shs 200 million for all the violations he has suffered and another Shs 50 million for exemplary damages for contempt of court.
The court further directed that government produces Odongo before a competent court within 48 hours of the order. In the event that he’s not produced, the ruling added, “court issues a conditional release order forthwith.”

Recently the Uganda Human Rights Commission disclosed that government owes torture victims up to a tune of Shs 6 trillion in damages awarded by courts of law. In court, Turyatemba was represented by James Byamukama while the government was represented by Charity Nabaasa.

Rights body accuses Finance of refusing to pay torture victims

https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/688334-5162650-ot3oe5z/index.html 

Wednesday June 19 2019

By DERRICK WANDERA 

 

Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has accused the Ministry of Finance of failing to release Shs5b meant for compensation of victims of torture.

Addressing journalists at their headquarters in Kampala yesterday, Mr Med Kaggwa, the UHRC chairman, without giving the specific number of beneficiaries, said this money has been accumulating over time.

“President Museveni has written several letters to Finance ministry to clear this outstanding amount. I even have some of copies of the letters to this claim, but that has not come through. We have been saying this money should be cleared because you are dealing with people who have suffered, they need treatment. Some of them pass on before receiving this money,” Mr Kaggwa said.
The Finance Ministry spokesperson, Mr Jim Mugunga, said they are neither aware of the awards nor have seen the letters.

“I am not privy to the specific cases referred to by the chairman of the commission,” he said, adding: “However, in the past, the Ministry has made settlements as required. Broadly, there was guidance to the effect that judicial and all quasi-judicial settlements of this nature would be handled with the clear participation and sign off of the Ministry of Justice [and Constitutional Affairs]. I hope this process was followed. If not, then we shall work with the commission to ensure this is resolved. We are committed to supporting the commission undertake its mandate and deliver justice.”

In the past, Justice ministry had ring-fenced 12 per cent of their annual budget for compensation of victims of torture but in 2015, government passed a resolution that said each ministry, department and agency of government will be handling their own issues.

Mr Kaggwa said: “We had been receiving the 12 per cent but since government moved away from this, we no longer get this money for compensation.”
Mr Samuel Herbert Nsubuga, the chief executive officer of ACTV, said: “We used these figures to inform UHRC on how to bill and compensate the victims. We treated them and made sure they had been healed.”

Torture victims

In the UHRC’s report of 2018, it was indicated that of the 3,008 complaints, they received last year, 1,377 were torture victim cases. Another report from the African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV) indicated that in a period between 2015 and 2018 they received 4,528 torture survivours of whom 3,293 were male and 1,235 female.