Rafsanjan Abbey Tatya
21 November 2006
PLAWRIGHT-ACTOR Ashraf Simwogerere, who disappeared after the premiere of his controversial film was admitted to Mulago Hospital three days later and has been treated for dizziness and high blood pressure, police said yesterday.
Regional Police Commander Grace Turyagumanawe said Simwogerere was found bound and lying on the railway line in Kinawataka near Kireka trading centre at 2 a.m. on Monday. According to local police, a train came through 10 minutes after the actor had been removed.
Turyagumanawe told a press conference yesterday that Mr Moses Ozomba, who was returning home from a disco, came upon Simwogerere, who was crying for help.
"Ozomba found him (Simwogerere) lying on a railway line with his hands tied behind his back and his legs tied together; and he took him to Kireka Police station," he said.
Simwogerere disappeared from the National Theatre last Thursday immediately after the premiere of Murder in the City, a movie based on the gunning down last July of city lawyer Robinah Kiyingi and the subsequent investigation into her death.
Torture doubted
Turyagumanawe said Simwogerere, who was not allowed to recieve reporters, seemed to be in good health. The officer said he doubted that the actor, in his 40s, had been tortured.
"He is sound, only he has pain in his back" Turyagumanawe said, "He will be exposed to the press after police investigations." However, the director of Uganda Citizens' Rescue, the organisation that sponsored the making of the movie, said Simwogerere told him he had been "mentally tortured."
The disappearance
"Someone pretended to be his fan who wanted to appreciate him for a good movie, and he tricked him into the car at the gate of Parliament," Mr Godfrey Ssebuwufu said, "But he was blindfolded and driven to a certain place where he was locked into a self-contained room."
"He was ordered to hand over the script of Part Two of the movie, and when he said he didn't have it, they gave him a paper and pen and he was told to write it there and then, which he did."
Ssebuwufu said Simwogerere could not identify the place where he was taken but he could recall a car hitting several humps just before parking inside the particular house. While in custody, Simwogerere fed on water and chapattis.
He said the abductors had photos of Simwogerere's children and wife.
"Simwogerere told me the kidnappers told him to choose the person he loved most, and they would bring his or her head to him."
He said Simwogerere was also asked whether he thought Dr Aggrey Kiyingi had killed his wife Robinah, "but he told them he knew nothing about it, and that the movie is not based on the Kiyingi murder saga."
The abductors asked him to identify the real person who is depicted in the movie by the character Luyombya.
Luyombya is a corrupt government official who kills the lawyer wife as she prepared to declare him corrupt after investigating him, but police arrest her innocent husband, Dr Musoke, instead.
At Mulago, where Simwogerere was lying on bed 32 in Ward 3 B, the acting director Dr Isaac Ekati said the actor appeared in good health but was suffering from stress and needed time to recover.
Police Spokesman Edward Ochom chatted with Simwogerere at his bedside as four policemen in plainclothes guarded the way to his bed. Simwogerere was talking to his oldest daughter Sophie, a student at Makerere University when his father Mr Abdallah Mukiibi arrived. Mukiibi was forced to leave Simwogerere's bedside after he broke into tears on hearing his son repeatedly greet him saying, "Asalam Aleikum (peace be upon you).
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