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Ugandan pop star-turned-MP shares detailed torture allegations against military

During and after his detention last month, Wine says he was beaten with an iron bar, punched, kicked, hit with pistol butts and had his ears pulled with "something like pliers."
"After some time, I could almost no longer feel the pain. I could only hear what they were doing from a far. My cries and pleas went unheeded. The things they were speaking to me all this while, I cannot reproduce here. Up to now, I cannot understand how these soldiers who I probably had never met before in person could hate me so much," Wine said in the statement.
Ugandan politician Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, center, in northern Uganda on August 23.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, is an MP and the leader of a youth movement that has challenged Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni's regime. Museveni previously dismissed allegations that Wine and other opposition politicians were tortured.
The Facebook post is the first detailed statement Wine has made since he arrived in the United States over the weekend.
Wine came to the US for medical treatment following "brutal torture" at the hands of Uganda's Special Forces Command, he said in a tweet Saturday upon arriving. CNN has reached out to Uganda's SFC for comment.
"We thank the world for standing with us," he said in Saturday's tweet.
Wine attempted to travel to the US on Thursday but was prevented from boarding his flight, one of his attorneys, Erias Lukwago, told CNN. He was taken away in a police vehicle to a government-owned hospital in the capital of Kampala with limited access to his family, the lawyer said.
On Friday, Uganda's Police Force said it had prevented Wine from traveling in order to give him a medical checkup to investigate allegations that he was tortured.
Bobi Wine arrives in the US
Wine was first arrested by the military on August 15 after rioting broke out between rival parties ahead of a local parliamentary election. He has been charged with treason for allegedly trying to stone Museveni's convoy. Another 32 opposition politicians have also been charged. He was freed on bail August 27.
His legal team says he suffered multiple fractures and injuries while detained following the arrest.
Kenyan activists and civil society groups protest in solidarity with the Ugandan pop star-turned-lawmaker.
Wine's youth movement has rattled the Museveni regime. Pockets of protests broke out in Kampala on Friday as angry youths took to the streets to protest Wine's arrest. Police and soldiers moved through the city, particularly downtown Kamwokya, where Wine's studio is located, to quell demonstrations by his supporters, who had blocked roads in the neighborhood with rocks and tires.
Musicians around the world, including Chris Martin, Angelique Kidjo and Damon Albarn, joined the campaign to #FreeBobiWine.

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