“Landed in Dubai at 8:30pm and it’s now 5am. I have been held and interrogated for eight hours. They asked me about NUP, it’s (sic) leaders, their phone numbers, my family members and their contacts! I have all necessary travel documents. They have confiscated my passport and my phone. I am literary (sic) under arrest,” Kyagulanyi tweeted on Saturday morning.
National Unity Platform (NUP) president, Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, who is popularly known as Bobi Wine, was arrested and interrogated for ten hours by authorities in Dubai before finally being released this morning.
Bobi Wine
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The NUP leader, who is also a former presidential candidate and unstinting government critic, had flown to Dubai for a charity concert to help raise funds for Ugandan migrant workers who live there incommunicado, under the most horrendous conditions.
In the NUP principal’s latest statement, Wine said whereas his phone and passport had initially been confiscated, they were returned to him after 10 hours of interrogation.
“Hopefully things go as planned. Will give an update,” he said.
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NUP spokesperson, Joel Ssenyonyi confirmed the arrest and subsequent release, noting that Wine’s arrest and interrogation were blatantly for “political reasons”
” We hope the authorities in Dubai are not trying anything ridiculous. Given the kind of questions they are asking him, this has nothing to do with immigration requirements, he’s clearly being held for political reasons. Unacceptable,” Ssenyonyi tweeted.
Wine, who is also a top musician in Uganda, has been planning this music benefit for several months, many believe his harassment at the hands of the Dubai authorities was inevitable and possibly hatched by the Uganda government.
The Dubai Authorities have not made a formal statement about the claims made by Wine.
