A Ugandan court on Tuesday charged a member of the country’s security forces with murder in the shooting deaths last week of two opposition supporters at a rally site.
Special police constable Ramathan Magara, a retired military officer, was charged in connection with a incident on Wednesday in which he allegedly opened fire on a crowd of supporters of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, killing two.
Magara’s title is one given to former Ugandan soldiers who join local miltias after their service and does not mean he is a member of the police force.
According to the charge sheet, Magara ”with malice aforethought murdered Vincent Kavuma and Gideon Makabayi by shooting”. He was also charged with attempted murder for shooting and wounding two other Besigye supporters at the same site.
The two counts were filed on the final day of the campaign for Thursday’s polls — Uganda’s first multiparty elections in 26 years — in which Besigye is the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni.
The campaign has been punctuated by sporadic violence, including the shooting deaths, and opposition claims of rampant state intimidation are shared by human rights groups.
The two victims were killed when Magara fired from his car into a crowd of several thousand, some of whom were angered by his presence at the site where Besigye was holding meetings with leaders of the Buganda tribal kingdom.
Magara was one of two retired soldiers arrested shortly after the shootings for which police have apologised.
”Inquiries continue,” prosecutor Robert Macky told magistrate Susan Kanyange as he presented the charges against the defendant.
It was not immediately clear if the second person detained would be charged in the matter.
Magara was not allowed to enter a plea at Tuesday’s hearing at the magistrate’s court because the charge he faces is a capital offence and must be heard by the High Court.
Kanyange set the next hearing in the case for March 13. – Sapa-AFP