Cop death: Besigye charged

By Darious Magara

Opposition leader Kizza Besigye and 14 others were Wednesday charged with managing an unlawful assembly that led to the murder of an Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP) John Bosco Ariong.

Besigye, FDC Women League boss Ingrid Turinawe, Kawempe Division Mayor Mubaraka Munyagwa, Kampala Woman MP Nabilah Ssempala, and FDC woman activist Catherine Dembe appeared before Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Eleanor Khainza.

The charges also included injuring another Policeman on duty. The suspects denied  the charges.

The suspects’ lawyers led by David Mpanga submitted to court that the accused were respectable members of society and had presented substantial sureties.

They were granted bail and told to appear in court on April 17 after each of the sureties was bonded sh50m and each of the suspects sh20m not cash.

 The Director of Public Prosecutions Richard Butera preferred charges against them. Ariong was hit with a blunt object, purportedly a rock thrown from a building on Ben Kiwanuka Street, as Police dispersed a crowd of Activists mainly from the opposition political parties, who were in a procession.