Highly guarded backdoor talks aimed at releasing Sheikh Jamil Mukulu, the chief of Allied Democratic Front (ADF), a globally blacklisted terrorist outfit, have leaked.

According to sources very close to the negotiations, the talks are already in their advanced stage to see a free Mukulu.

The leaked negotiations show that President Museveni himself is taking the lead in negotiating Mukulu’s release under the amnesty law.

“The president is pondering on releasing Mukulu vide a condition that he will help him to convince his rebels to stop committing atrocities against innocent Ugandans and by extension, bring an end to the rebellion he started against the Kampala government,” our sources revealed.

We have been made to understand that the other reason Museveni wants to release Mukulu is because while the President had been convinced that the arrest of the man would mark the end of the killing of Muslim clerics, the opposite has been the case instead.

“Get it from us, the man is already out of confinement.” When our sources were asked why Mukulu is out of Nalufenya already when the talks have not been concluded yet, the source claimed that President Museveni is doing it in order to demonstrate his commitment to finally grant amnesty to the ADF Chief.

Furthered revealed is that Mukulu “is currently being held in a safe house in one of the Kampala surburbs as he undergoes counseling and rehabilitation before he can be released into public life.”

Releasing Mukulu as strange as it is, seems unpalatable according to the atrocities he is accused of having committed against Ugandans. For instance the burning of students at Kichwamba Technical Institute. A number of rebels have been released via the Amnesty deal. The president has since pardoned several rebels and now sit with him on the cabinet while others serve in the Ugandan army.

Among these include Gen. Moses Ali. Who was one of the commanders of the West Nile Bank Front which operated in Arua. The highly trained bulky paratrooper has since been pardoned by the President and elevated to the military rank of General.

More Ex-rebels including the leader of Tabliqs in Uganda, Sheikh Yunus Kamoga, late Maj Sheikh Mohammed Kiggundu was too Mukulu’s rebel until he renounced rebellion and was pardoned by the president.

Museveni has been a strong believer in forgiving and not killing or fighting his enemies especially those who realize their faults and become willing to renounce them.

The African Union has called for the mass withdrawal of member states from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

However, the resolution is non-binding, with Nigeria and Senegal opposing a withdrawal. South Africa and Burundi have already decided to withdraw, accusing the ICC of undermining their sovereignty and unfairly targeting Africans.

The ICC denies the allegation, insisting it is pursuing justice for victims of war crimes in Africa. The AU took the decision on Tuesday following a divisive debate at its annual heads of state of summit in Addis Ababa, the BBC’s Emmanuel Igunza reports from Ethiopia’s capital.

Part of the resolution also said the AU would hold talks with the UN Security Council to push for the ICC to be reformed, our correspondent adds.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the court on charges of genocide in Darfur, was at the summit.

In 2015, a South African court criticized President Jacob Zuma’s government for failing to arrest Mr Bashir when he attended an AU meeting in the main city, Johannesburg.

The government later announced that it was withdrawing from the ICC because it did not want to execute arrest warrants which would lead to “regime change”.

A total of 34 African states are signatories to the Rome Statute, which set up the ICC.