Family Can’t See Treason Suspect

By Grace MatsikoTHE Police yesterday blocked relatives from seeing a treason suspect, Denis Murindwa Kaginda (pictured), detained at Kampala Central Police Station (CPS).The relatives who included the suspects wife, Doreen Murindwa, his father, David Kaginda, and their lawyer, Caleb Alaka, had taken food to the Central Police Station. They also had a doctor to examine him after he complained of torture while in the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence custody. Murindwa is a cousin to Col Kizza Besigye, the runner-up in the 2001 presidential elections.Mbarara Municipality MP and wife to Besigye, Winnie Byanyima, pleaded with the Police to let Murindwa talk to his family and be examined by a doctor in vain. The relatives spent about three hours at CPS. They camped at the CPS from 12:45pm. They were told to go away at 3:52pm.“We are surprised. We got a letter from Mr. Womanya, the CID anti-terrorism chief, to see him but those people refused us to meet him,” a disappointed Doreen Murindwa said. She said the Police allowed the family to give him food.Murindwa, in an interview with The New Vision reporter, said, “Those men beat us badly. I’ve scars all over my body.” The suspect showed the reporter black marks on the left and right hand which he said were a result of sisal ropes the CMI used to tie them during interrogation.“The hands and the legs were all tied with ropes,” Murindwa said before plain-clothes security men pushed him back into the cells after discovering he was talking to the journalist. Murindwa, however, looked healthy and clean. But his father said the clothes they had taken home for washing were extremely dirty indicating that he was roughed up in detention.“Let them prove that he was not tortured and we produce those clothes. Some even were stained with blood. Where did it come from?” Kaginda asked.He insisted his son was innocent but was being framed by people bent on destroying the family. Murindwa’s brother, Roland Kaginda Mugume, was recently arrested for the murder of Rukungiri LC5 candidate, Lt. Ngabirano, but was set free later.CMI chief Lt. Col. Noble Mayombo told Parliament on Tuesday that he had evidence that Murindwa housed and provided cellphones to army officers he was recruiting into rebel ranks. The suspect, a Makerere University student and businessman, is expected to appear in court today.Mayombo said Murindwa hosted in his house and also rented a house for Lt Fred Biryomumaisho, Lt Ali Faraje, Sgt Hassan Muhindura and Pte Moses Byamukama and gave them cellphones.Ends