Australian-based doctor added to Uganda’s most-wanted list

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Yoweri Museveni
The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni. Aggrey Kiyingi wants to challenge him for the presidency. Photograph: Zhang Duo/Xinhua Press/Corbis

An Australian-based doctor who wants to stand as a presidential candidate in Uganda has been placed alongside the warlord Joseph Kony as one of the country’s most wanted men.

The names and photographs of the 11 wanted people have been published in all major newspapers in the country, and they include Dr Aggrey Kiyingi.

“He is a wealthy cardiologist based in Australia,” the ad says. “He is wanted for bankrolling murders that rocked eastern Uganda from December 2014 to February 2015.”

According to prosecutors, Kiyingi and 23 other suspects murdered four Muslim clerics, two policemen and a local leader.

They are further charged with attempting to murder three other people.

Kiyingi has previously dismissed the claims saying they are part of a long history of orchestrated government harassment of his political organisation, including imprisonment of members, in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

The country’s police spokesman, Fred Enaga, says: “We have released the list of Uganda’s most wanted criminal fugitives.

“Some of them are in countries which do not have extradition treaties with Uganda. We are working with Interpol to arrest the suspects outside Uganda.”

Kony, who launched a rebellion in Uganda more than two decades ago, is wanted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers.