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기사입력 : 2024.07.12 23:44
A Ugandan court has sentenced a 24-year-old TikToker to six years in prison for insulting the country's president and his family. According to the indictment, the young man posted a video on TikTok spreading "misleading and malicious information" about President Yoweri Museveni, First Lady Janet Museveni, and their son, who is the head of the army.
The court was informed that Edward Awewa, the defendant, disseminated "offensive" information and claimed there would be a tax increase under Museveni's presidency. Despite pleading guilty and apologizing, Awewa was deemed unremorseful by the presiding judge, who highlighted the vulgar language used in the video. The judge stated, "The accused deserves a punishment that will allow him to learn punishment from his past so that next time he can respect the face of the President, the First Lady, and their son hers."
Violations of Human Rights and Freedom of __EXPRESSION__
Human rights groups have frequently denounced Ugandan authorities for violating human rights and suppressing freedom of __EXPRESSION__. In 2022, 35-year-old award-winning writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was accused of "offensive communication" for making unflattering comments about President Museveni and his son on Twitter. After spending a month in prison, where he claimed to have been tortured, Rukirabashaija fled to Germany. His arrests in April 2020 and September of the same year were linked to his books "The Greedy Barbarian" and "Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous," which criticized Museveni and detailed his alleged torture.
In another instance, activist, writer, and poet Stella Nianzi was arrested and imprisoned in 2017 for a poem criticizing the president. Following her release in January 2022, Nianzi fled to Germany with her three children.
Yoweri Museveni has been Uganda's president since 1986 and was re-elected for a sixth term in 2021. In 2022, he signed an anti-speech law that punishes "offensive communication." Human rights activists argue that the law aims to suppress online free speech. Last year, Uganda's Constitutional Court ruled that the section of the law on 'offensive communication' was unconstitutional.
Michael Aboneka, a human rights lawyer in Uganda, told the BBC that the 24-year-old TikToker was sentenced under this unclear law. He stated that unless the authorities plan to arrest every citizen criticizing them, President Museveni and his family will have to get used to criticism.
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