Ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee jailed five years over foiled suicide bomb attack at Gen Lokech’s funeral

The International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala has Jamal Kiyemba to five years imprisonment after being convicted over the foiled bomb attack during Gen Paul Lokech’s funeral.

The attack was foiled in Pader District in August 2021 when security forces intercepted  Rashid Katumba , who was carrying explosives with the intent to cause harm to the public.

On Friday, lady Justice Suzan Okalany convicted three men including Rashid Katumba alias Abdu, Najiimu Luyenje and Arafat Jamil Kiyemba.

The trio had earlier opted to plead guilty to the charges and entered a plea bargain arrangement.

While Katumba was convicted of terrorism and unlawful possession of  explosives and sentenced to 10 years for each of the two offences but to run concurrently , Luyenje and Kiyemba were each sentenced to five years after being convicted of  belonging to Allied Democratic Forces(ADF),  a terrorist organisation.

Mr. Thomas Jatiko – Assistant DPP and Ms. Marion Ben-bella – Senior State Attorney in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Kiyemba

By the time of Kiyemba’s arrest in May 2022, he was  the Imam for Masjid Taqwa Zzana, Kirimanyaga zone, Makindye Ssabagabo in Wakiso district .

Born Anthony Kiyemba in Uganda 45 year ago, he converted to Islam aged 20 and changed his name to Jamal Abdullah.

When his family moved to Britain following the death of his father in 1993, Kiyemba refused to pally for British citizenship.

According to US military files, he was later in 2002 arrested near Peshawar in Pakistan after allegedly trying to enter Afghanistan in the company of ‘a probable al-Qaeda operative, a suspected al-Qaeda operative and a low-level jihadist’.

It is said that Kiyemba had lived in the UK for eight years before travelling to Pakistan.

The former pharmacy student at a university in Leicester was held at Guantanamo Bayo for four years until he was released in 2006 but since he was not a British citzen, he was not allowed back to the UK.

Consequently he was deported to Uganda by the US.

In 2015 he was arrested in connection with the shooting of prosecutor Joan Kagezi who was leading prosecutions in the case of the men accused of masterminding the July 2010 Lugogo twin bombings.

Uganda police then said Kiyemba had been arrested with the help of US officials but there was no conclusive evidence to link him to the shooting.

ADF links

Kiyemba was accused of having links with ADF which was last year blamed for the double bomb blasts in Kampala at the Central Police Station and along Parliamentary Avenue killing more than six people including police officers.

The ADF was a few  years ago declared as a terrorist group in 2014 swore allegiance to the Islamic State, a radical Sunni military group.

According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the ADF has used the name Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen (City of Monotheism and Holy Warriors—MTM) to emphasize its links to the Islamic State.