Prominent Ugandan author flees into exile, says lawyer
Mai Gail 
Lawyer of Prominent Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija who was charged with insulting President Yoweri Museveni and his son says the novelist has fled into exile. "He has left Ugand, he said. Statin that his client was seeking medical treatment abroad for injuries inflicted during his time in jail.""He fears poisoning as a result of his injuries and the injections of unknown substances he was subjected to," Eron Kiiza, the lawyer for Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, told AFPKiiza said.
The 33-year-old prominent ugandan novelist who last year won an international award given to persecuted writers, had told his lawyer he was in neighbouring Rwanda and was aiming to reach Europe.
The Ugandan novelist who was charged with insulting President Yoweri Museveni and his son has fled the country out of fear for his life, his lawyer said Wednesday.
""He fears poisoning as a result of his injuries and the injections of unknown substances he was subjected to," Kiiza said.
Rukirabashaija was detained shortly after Christmas and later charged with "offensive communication", a case that has raised international concern, with the European Union among those calling for a "comprehensive investigation" into rights abuses in Uganda."They beat me with batons, everywhere. "You collapse, they beat you, you get up, you go into unconsciousness," the novelist said in the interview with NTV Uganda broadcast on Saturday as he appeared on television at the weekend to reveal painful-looking welts criss-crossing his back and scars on other parts of his body.
n one post, he described Kainerugaba, a general who many Ugandans believe is positioning himself to take over from his 77-year-old father, as "obese" and a "curmudgeon".
He was released on bail last month, with his trial due to begin on March 23.
Chief magistrate Douglas Singiza had refused to relax Rukirabashaija's bail conditions, which included a hold on his passport and an order not to speak to journalists.
