By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: Police have released on bond, the four people who were arrested alongside human rights lawyer, Nicholas Opiyo.
Opiyo was on Tuesday afternoon picked up from Lamaro restaurant located in Kamwokya together with other lawyers including Herbert Dakasi, Anthony Odur and Esomu Obure, and Hamid Tenywa before being handcuffed and detained at the Special Investigations Division in Kireka.
However, on Thursday afternoon, the four co-accused were released on police bond and asked to report back to the Special Investigations Division in Kireka on December 29, 2020.
The development came a few minutes after Nicholas Opiyo was arraigned before the Chief magistrates court in Nakawa and charged with money laundering contrary to sections 3 ( c ), 116, and 136 of the Anti -Money Laundering Act.
The prosecutor told the court that the human rights lawyer received $340,000 through an Absa bank account belonging to Chapter Four Uganda, an organization he heads, knowing that at the time of receipt, the funds were proceeds of crime.
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He was later remanded to Kitalya government prison until December,28.
The development comes after a group of lawyers under their umbrella organization of Chapter Four released a statement last evening calling for the unconditional and immediate release of their colleagues including Nicholas Opiyo, Anthony Odur, Herbert Dakasi, Simon Peter Esomu, and Tenywa Hamid.
Meanwhile, Kyagulanyi’s international lawyer based in US Robert Amsterdam has since written to the US’ house of representatives asking them to act on Uganda in a special way to save innocent citizens dying every day due to police brutality.
In his letter addressed to Hon. Rep. Elliot L. Engel Chairman on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Hon. Rep. Michael McCaul Lead Republican of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Amsterdam says that “the actions by the regime of President Yoweri Museveni represent a clear and unambiguous attack on the democratic rights of the Ugandan people.”
