Islamic militant leader extradited to Uganda from Tanzania
Jul 10, 2015, 11:18 AM
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A most-wanted Ugandan Islamic militant leader who is accused of committing atrocities in Uganda and Congo was extradited back home from Tanzania on Friday, according to the head of Interpol in Uganda.
Rebel leader Jamil Mukulu, who heads the Congo-based armed group Allied Democratic Forces, was flown to Uganda after losing his bid to avoid extradition from Tanzania, Asan Kasingye told The Associated Press.
He said it is not certain when Mukulu, who was arrested in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam earlier this year, will appear in court to face charges.
Mukulu is accused of multiple counts of murder stemming from his alleged role as the leader of the Islamic militant group that regularly attacks civilians in eastern Congo.
A convert to Islam who developed a reputation as an elusive rebel leader, Mukulu is accused of leading a 1998 attack in which scores of Ugandan students were burned to death while asleep in their dormitories in a town near the Congo border.
The Allied Democratic Forces, which originally said it opposed what it called the marginalization of Ugandan Muslims, is accused of launching a series of deadly bomb blasts in the Ugandan capital of Kampala in the late 1990s before a military operation forced the rebels to move to eastern Congo.
The rebels have largely been quiet over the years, staging sporadic attacks on towns in eastern Congo and against Congolese military units.
A U.N. report in 2012 said the rebels had “expanded their military capacity and cooperated” with Somalia’s al-Shabab militants.
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