Amin 'has escaped justice'

Amin expelled Uganda's Asian population in 1972

A Ugandan who was beaten up by the former dictator Idi Amin's henchmen says he should have been extradited back to Uganda.

Dr John Sentamu, Anglican Bishop of Birmingham, fled Uganda to Britain in 1974.

He received near fatal injuries when he was beaten up under Amin's orders while a judge in Uganda.

Britain's former foreign secretary Lord Owen has revealed he suggested assassinating Amin when he was in government.

I'm not ashamed of considering it, because his regime goes down in the scale of Pol Pot as one of the worst of all African regimes Former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen UK considered killing Idi Amin

Dr Sentamu said: "One of the cases I tried involved Amin's cousin, who was accused of the torture and rape of a woman.

"Amin had told me that I must find the defendant not guilty.

"I tried the case and sentenced his cousin to five years imprisonment."

'Restorative justice'

The bishop said he was then arrested and beaten by Amin's henchmen, causing internal bleeding which became life threatening.

He said Amin should have been extradited to Uganda for the purposes of achieving restorative justice, "whereby his victims and the country would have been empowered to move on in a truly humane way".

Amin fled to Libya, then Iraq, before finally settling in Saudi Arabia, where he was allowed to remain provided he stayed out of politics.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a Ugandan Asian journalist who lives in Britain, told Channel 4 News Amin had got away with his crimes.

"The greatest shame is that he was allowed to live this long in relative luxury.

"Part of the problem was that we, the UK I mean, were implicitly involved in his rise to power. The man was absolutely evil."

The MP for Leicester East Keith Vaz told the same programme that nobody in his city would be mourning Amin's death.

He said: "People remember the fact that he ruined their lives when he exiled them.

"Uganda's loss was Leicester and the UK's gain, but many people are still bitter and are pursuing compensation claims against Uganda.

"In this age we would have done more. Someone like Idi Amin would not have been in power so long. It's a tragedy."

Amin's death was confirmed on Saturday by hospital officials in Saudi Arabia.

Human rights groups say up to 400,000 people were killed under the rule of the former British Army lieutenant.

Amin was initially admired by British authorities

Manzoor Moghul, vice-chairman of the Ugandan Evacuees Association in Leicester, was one of tens of thousands of Asians who settled in Britain after being expelled.

He told BBC News 24: "Ugandan Asians have no reason to grieve at his death but at the same time have no reason to celebrate or be jubilant.

"He was a brutal dictator yet a very remarkable man."

Mr Moghul said the move had dramatically uprooted many people who had built a livelihood in Uganda.

But the expulsion had benefited many Asians in the long-term because they had settled so well in Britain and left persecution behind, he said.

"Ironically, many considered him to be a benefactor of the Ugandan Asian community."

In 1972, Amin announced the expulsion of Asians and the confiscation of their businesses, blaming them for controlling the economy.

Mr Moghul, who said Amin had personally apologised for his action when they met in 1986, said the move had been in retaliation for Britain's attitude to its former colony.

He added: "He punished Britain by expelling the whole lot of Asians and dumping them on Britain."