A UGANDAN court has acquitted 18 people charged over the July bombings in the capital, Kampala, which killed 76 people, including one Irishwoman, watching the World Cup final.
However, 17 others, including one prominent Kenyan human rights activist, had been remanded in custody to face trial, defence lawyers said.
The Somalia al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabab admitted responsibility for the suicide bomb attacks, which exploded at an Ethiopian restaurant and a rugby club on July 11th. It said they were in retaliation for Uganda’s participation in the African union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
“It could be months before the other 17 go on trial, but the police have collected all their evidence and it is a very high-profile case so it should come before the high court sooner than later,” Francis Onyango, a lawyer defending 14 of the accused, said.
The 17 facing trial are charged with terrorism offences, murder and attempted murder.
Human rights activists and defence lawyers expressed surprise that one of the accused was Al-Amin Kimathi, who heads the Muslim Human Rights Forum in neighbouring Kenya.
He was arrested in Kampala on September 15th after travelling there to witness the court hearings of Kenyan suspects extradited to Uganda. He is accused of providing funds for two safe houses in Nairobi, where the alleged suicide bombers planned their attacks.
“It doesn’t beggar belief that there is an attempt to settle a score with Kimathi,” Mwalimu Mati of Mars Group Kenya, a Kenyan anti-corruption organisation, said. “He has been a thorn in the side of the Kenyan authorities for some time.”
Since 2007, Mr Kimathi has exposed several cases of extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Ethiopia, the US and elsewhere. He has also campaigned on behalf of Kenyan inmates in Guantánamo Bay.
“He has been very outspoken on the activities of Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit and misconduct by that unit,” Mr Mati said. “If their aim is only to keep him out of their way for a while, it is working.”
Human Rights Watch also called his arrest into question.
“The decision to persist with the charges against Al-Amin Kimathi raises serious concerns that this prosecution is really an effort to muzzle a well-known critic of government abuses in the fight against terrorism in east Africa,” the New-York based group said.
The Kenyan authorities have faced criticism for the rendition of suspects to Uganda, with allegations that some were taken secretly and with no legal representation.