Ugandan TikToker jailed for 'vulgar' videos targeting president

A Ugandan TikToker was condemned Wednesday to six years in prison for spreading "misleading and malicious" information after he insulted President Yoweri Museveni, his wife, and their son.

According to prosecutors, Edward Awebwa between February and March posted "vulgar" videos about the first family. The 24-year-old had pleaded guilty.

Awebwa "is pleading for mercy but he does not look remorseful at all for his actions," Judge Stella Maris Amabilis said Wednesday as she read the court's decision.

"The court had the opportunity to see the video, the language that was being used was vulgar," she said.

"This court is of the opinion that the accused deserves punishment which will enable him to learn from his past so that next time he will respect the person of the president, the first lady and first son."

NGO's routinely denounce human rights violations in the East-African country, which has been ruled with an iron fist by Museveni since 1986.

In 2022, the Ugandan writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija fled to Germany claiming he'd been tortured in jail for having insulted Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who was recently named head of the army and whom the writer called a "baby despot".

The activist and writer Stella Nyanzi, who has also been in exile in Germany since 2022, was jailed in 2019 after publishing a poem criticising the president.