A 21-year-old has change into the newest Ugandan TikToker to be despatched to jail after making a video that was stated to insult President Yoweri Museveni.
Emmanuel Nabugodi appeared for the sentencing on Monday after pleading responsible final week to 4 costs, together with hate speech and spreading malicious details about the president.
He was sentenced to 32 months in jail.
Nabugodi, recognized for sharing comedy content material to his 20,000 followers, made a movie of a mock trial of the pinnacle of state. In it he referred to as for Museveni’s public flogging.
Rights teams have continuously complained about restrictions on the liberty of speech within the nation, alleging that the president – in energy since 1986 – doesn’t tolerate criticism.
In July, Edward Awebwa was handed a six-year sentence on related costs to Nabugodi relating to a TikTok put up. Three others are awaiting trial over content material on the social media app.
When handing down Nabugodi’s sentence, Stellah Maris Amabilis, the chief Justice of the Peace of the courtroom in Entebbe, stated he was not remorseful and the sentence would assist stop social media assaults towards folks together with the particular person of the president.
“This courtroom hopes that by the point the convict leaves jail, he would have learnt that abusing folks within the title of getting content material is unhealthy,” she stated.
She added that he had the precise to enchantment towards the sentence inside 14 days.
He was convicted beneath a controversial modification in 2022 to the Pc Misuse Act.
It made it unlawful to “write, ship, or share any info by a pc, which is prone to ridicule, degrade, or demean one other particular person, group of individuals, a tribe, an ethnicity, a faith or gender”.
In its human rights report on Uganda final 12 months, the US State Division stated the “authorities used this regulation to intimidate web customers from criticizing authorities insurance policies”.
Rights teams additionally usually denounce the Ugandan authorities over violations of human rights and the liberty of expression.
In 2022, award-winning Ugandan writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of “offensive communication” after making unflattering remarks in regards to the president and his son on Twitter.
He fled the nation to Germany after spending a month in jail, the place he stated he had been tortured.
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[Getty Images/BBC]
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