Parliament yesterday Wednesday passed the Anti-Terrorism Amendment Bill 2017 which among others provides for interpretation of the term suspected terrorist, criminalizes the acts referenced to by the Terrorism Financing Convention, and widen the scope of terrorism to financing of terror activities.
The Bill presented by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo was passed after a hot debate in the house which saw members wondering why the Minister was tabling amendments piecemeal without wholesomely considering Uganda’s International Obligations.
The Anti – Terrorism Law has so far been amended twice in 2015 and in 2016 and the passed amendment is the third amendment.
According to the Defense Committee report read to the House by Col. Felix Kulaigye, the 2015 amendment was aimed at harmonizing the definition of funds with that contained in the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, 1999.
“The amendment was aimed at amending the definition of terrorism and acts of terrorism to include the international aspects envisaged by the convention,” Kulaigye said.
The 2016 amendment sought to further amend the definition of terrorism and acts of terrorism to include the revised international aspects envisaged by the United Nations Convention against Terrorism.
While justifying the need to pass the bill, Kulaigye noted that Uganda has since October 2013 been under the Targeted Review Process of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) which is mandated to examine the most significant of Uganda’s Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CFT) deficiencies that pose a risk to the International financial system and to identify actions to be taken to address deficiencies.