Police has Wednesday come out to dismiss claims made by a one Charles Bwerwanaho on a live television talkshow earlier accusing former Flying Squad Commandant of subjecting him to horrible torture.
Bwerwanaho on Monday morning singled out ACP Herbert Muhangi for ordering his men to unleash harm while in police custody in 2016.
But the deputy police spokesperson Patrick Onyango has refuted Bwerwanaho’s allegations questioning why he never raised torturous complaints while he faced Courts of Law.
Instead, the victim and his lawyers told Buganda Road Court that he had suffered prostate cancer since 1992.
Below is the Statement
We took note of today’s NBS Television program morning breeze titled Flying Squad torture victim speaks out, where one Bwerwanaho Charles was hosted and alleged several accusations against ACP Muhangi Herbert then Commandant of Flying Squad and others.
We want to put the record straight as follows:
Mr. Bwerwanaho was arrested on the Ph August, 2016 as an accused person wanted by Buganda Road Court on charges of issuing false cheques, forgery and uttering false documents. After the Resident State Attorney Buganda Road Court had evaluated the evidence contained in a case file reference CPS Kampala CRB 1074/2014 and 1075/2014, sanctioned the charge sheet dated 26th July 2016 ordered that Mr. Bwerwanaho be produced in court for trial.
Mr. Bwerwanaho was taken to court on 9th August 2016, immediately after the constitutional time frame of 48 hours rule.
Upon appearing before the Chief Magistrate at Buganda Road Court in presence of his lawyer, he didn’t notify court about his claim of torture at that time of his arrest, while in Police custody at CPS Kampala and theft of his Shs60,000, court proceedings are there to confirm this.
Mr. Bwerwanaho and his lawyers while applying for bail before the Chief Magistrate gave reason that he was suffering from prostate cancer due for surgery on 23rd August 2016 and that his health problem started way back in 1992.
This was captured in court proceedings by the court prosecutor and it is available in court files.
He was granted bail on 22rd August 2016 and the case was heard on 8th September 2016 where, Mr. Bwerwanaho changed his plea in all the charges preferred against him, was convicted on his own plea of guilt.
Mr. Bwerwanaho while in Police cells at CPS Kampala, OC CID could physically check him during the general suspects’ parade in the morning, he didn’t complain of any torture or his money being stolen. He is trying to tarnish the names of ACP Muhangi and others as a way to revenge the sentence awarded to him because of the evidence given by the investigating officers.
Uganda Police as an Institution does not support torture of suspects and theft of any kind, all our officers are aware of this.
The allegations by Mr. Bwerwanaho are baseless and full of falsehood.