KAMPALA, UGANDA: Renowned Human Rights Lawyer Nicholas Opiyo has confirmed that he fled the country for his own personal safety and is currently residing in the United States of America – USA.
This comes shortly after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Jane Frances Abodo “decided to discontinue proceedings” against him and his Chapter Four Uganda organization over alleged money laundering charges.
In a tweet sent on Monday, October 4, Opiyo confirmed that he flew to the USA and currently residing at Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Center.
“I left in haste and for my safety. I did. It didn’t even have the time to bid my family goodbye. I guess y I appreciate the circumstances in which I left. Let it be settled that I left the country (Uganda) and taken residence at Havard Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy. Let’s re-sharpen the tools for the work ahead. We will be back better and more resolved,” he said in a tweet.
Opiyo was arrested last year in December by plain-clothed security officers from a restaurant in Kamwokya alongside other lawyers namely Herbert Dakasi, Anthony Odur and Esomu Obure and NUP’s Human Rights Officer, Hamid Tenywa.
He was later charged before Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court with ‘money laundering and neglect to submit annual returns to the NGO Bureau’ before being remanded till December 28, 2020 when his case came up for mention.
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