Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reprieve, and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, urged the government of Uganda to either produce evidence it claims to have against the detained Kenyan human rights defender Al-Amin Kimathi or release him.
The call was jointly made in a statement released on Friday.
Kimathi was arrested on 15 September along with a Kenyan lawyer, Mbugua Mureithi, when they travelled to Uganda to observe the suspects’ court appearance.
In August 2010, Kimathi criticized Kenya’s transfer to Uganda, without respecting extradition procedures, of people accused in connection with the July 2010 bombings in Kampala.
Mureithi was released after three days and deported to Kenya. Kimathi was charged with terrorism, murder, and attempted murder on 20 September, alongside the suspects whose rights he was defending and has been in a maximum security prison since then.
Kimathi applied to be released on bail, but his initial application was denied in December 2010. A second bail application was submitted in February 2011 and scheduled to be heard in March, but the hearing was postponed and has not been rescheduled.
The group said the right to bail is protected under the Ugandan constitution, and that bail should not be denied in circumstances which would result in the violation of the right to a fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent before proven guilty.
Over the past year the state prosecution has not disclosed any evidence against Kimathi or the other defendants, apart from a very brief case summary and an indictment, laying out the charges.
The director of public prosecutions has indicated, however, that the majority of the evidence will be disclosed on Monday, when Kimathi, along with 18 other defendants, is expected to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on charges of terrorism for the July 2010 bombings.
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