DPA JOURNALIST HENRY WASSWA CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL TRESPASS AND RELEASED ON POLICE BOND
By Correspondent
Deutsche Press Agency ,(DPA) Uganda Correspondent Henry Wasswa who was arrested on Thursday August 26, 2021 for interviewing Afghan refugees in Imperial Beach Hotel Entebbe, is out of Police cells .
The Journalist had booked in the hotel as a guest and used the opportunity to interview part of 51 Afghan refugees who had checked in the hotel .
The heavy deployment of security personnel at the hotel ensured the journalist was spotted and arrested . The police first claimed the journalist was arrested for trying to “befriend” a female Afghan refugee but later dropped the claim after realizing the journalist was a hotel guest.
Records available at Imperial Beach Hotel indicate the journalist’s employer Deutsche Press Agency wired payment totaling $176 for one night accommodation for Wasswa.
Henry Wasswa, a hotel guest in Imperial Beach Hotel, was charged with Criminal Trespass and released late Saturday, August 28, 2021. Since then the traumatized and “tortured” journalist had switched off his known two mobile phones.
Wasswa said he will soon narrate his ordeal on how he was arrested , treated almost like a treason suspect and detained at Entebbe police station. Henry Wasswa is scheduled to report at police station on Friday September 3, 2021.
The only reason why Germany Press Agency ( DPA) Correspondent was arrested is because security agencies were shocked and to a greater extent ashamed , by how a Journalist had beaten their surveillance system at Imperial Hotel, Entebbe and managed to interview Afghanistan refugees.
Security operatives deleted information in a recorder and phone recordings of the Afghan interview. Observers say security agencies are just imagining what could have happened if the journalist had been a terrorist.
The incident could be a blessing in disguise and the best thing to do is for the security agencies to use Henry Wasswa’s incident to fill-up future security loopholes.
Uganda Journalists Union ( UJU) President Ms Lucy Anyango Ekadu condemned the arrest of DPA Correspondent Henry Wasswa by security agencies.
She said the police should drop the charges of Criminal Trespass because the Journalist did not trespass in the hospitality facility but was a hotel guest who paid for his accommodation.
She said : “The journalist was a guest in a hotel which accommodated Afghan refugees. What crime did he commit by talking to other hotel guests?”.
It remains to be seen how police will prove their “Criminal Trespass ” charges on a hotel guest who paid his money for accommodation.