Ever since the story of Kamwenge mayor, Geoffrey Byamukama went public, many including human rights organisations have come out to condemn the torture of suspects.
The latest to add a voice against torture of suspects by security agencies is President Yoweri Museveni.
In a letter to the Chief of Defence Forces, Inspector General of Police and Director General of Internal Security Organisation (ISO) Museveni who is the Commander in Chief of these forces has warned the organizations against torture of suspects, saying it interferes with fight against crime.
“It is, therefore, clear that torture in order to extract confessions (okutatsya) has three possible mistakes that may even interfere with the fight against crime. Number one; you may torture the wrong person, somebody who is totally innocent. This is very unfair.
“Secondly, somebody may admit guilt when he is innocent in order to be spared being tortured. This will make the real criminal escape in order to commit more crimes later. Thirdly, confessions by the criminals are not necessary,” he cautions in his letter.
He further advised that there are many ways through which criminals can be brought to book without necessarily torturing them.
“Even if the suspects do not admit their guilt, if the investigators do their work well (finger-prints, photo-graphs, DNA tests, eye-witnesses, the use of other scientific methods, the use of dogs etc), the criminals can get convicted. Therefore, the use of torture is unnecessary and wrong and must not be used again if it was being used as I see some groups claiming in the media.”
Museveni was reacting to Byamukama’s story that left the public in shock ever since it came to light last week.
Byamukama says he was arrested from the office of a commissioner in the ministry of Lands on April 11 by two men who identified themselves as Fred Tumuhiirwe and a one Byenkya from the police’s flying squad and special operations unit respectively.
He was then put into a waiting police van where he found three muscular men who closed the door and drove him to an unknown place. Inside the van, they started beating him and allegedly told him that to save my life, he had to confess that he participated in the killing of slain Police spokesperson Felix Kaweesi, an advice he rejected.
The beating continued even after getting to Nalufenya where he was taken until when he went into a comma and was rushed to Jinja Referral Hospital which rejected him over his condition.
He later sneaked into Nakasero hospital where he has been heavily guarded since.
