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Tanzanian court orders extradition of Islamist rebel leader to Uganda

The leader, Jamil Mukulu, said he would appeal against the decision.

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Stringer/Reuters
Ugandan rebel leader Jamil Mukulu sits inside the Kisutu resident's magistrate court in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, May 22, 2015.
  • By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala, George Obulutsa and Andrew Heavens Reuters

| DAR ES SALAAM

A Tanzanian court ordered an Islamist rebel leader on Thursday to be extradited to Uganda to face murder charges, though he said he would appeal against the decision.

Jamil Mukulu was described as the head of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an organization blamed for a string of attacks in western Uganda and the capital Kampala that killed 1,000 people between 1998 and 2000.

He is also wanted in connection to fighting in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda's government has said his organization is linked to Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab militants.

"I hereby ... order the respondent to be returned to the Republic of Uganda to stand trial for offenses," Cyprian Mkeha, principal magistrate at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's court in Dar es Salaam, said at the hearing.

Jamil, a Ugandan national who was arrested in Tanzania in late April, said he would go to the high court to challenge the extradition order.

He was sent to a remand prison in Tanzania' s commercial capital under tight security where he will be detained until his appeal.

Jamil has been under U.N. sanctions since 2011, and rights groups say the ADF has profited from lucrative cross-border trade in timber and minerals in eastern DRC and is responsible for executions, kidnappings, torture and rape.

The Congolese army launched a major operation against it last year, saying they had significantly weakened the group, leaving it with as few as 50 fighters.

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