Ugandan activists demand release of opposition leader facing military trial
Kizza Besigye has been in jail since he was abducted from the Kenyan capital last November.
Ugandan opposition leaders have demanded the release of a colleague whose military trial faces a legal challenge after the top court ruled that civilians cannot be court-martialled.
Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate in the East African country, has been in jail since his abduction from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where he went missing on November 16.
Days later, Besigye and an assistant appeared before a military tribunal in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, to face charges related to illegal possession of a firearm and threatening national security.
Besigye has since been charged with the more serious offense of treachery, which carries the death penalty.
Uganda’s supreme court ruled last week that civilians cannot be court-martialled, questioning the competence of untrained military officers to dispense justice.
The ruling was welcomed by Besigye’s supporters and other legal activists who saw it as timely and a way out for him to escape a possibly punishing military trial.
“Besigye is in Luzira now illegally,” said opposition legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, referring to the maximum-security prison.
Kampala Mayor Erias Lukwago, an opposition figure closely associated with Besigye, said Ugandans “are duty-bound to enforce” the court’s decision.
Yoweri Museveni, the authoritarian leader who has held power in Uganda since 1986, said in a statement following the court’s decision that “the country is not governed by the judges”.
Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the supreme court’s decision is a major step towards protecting the right to a fair trial in Uganda.
Besigye was expected to appear before the military panel again on Monday but the hearing did not take place, with a heavy police and military deployment outside the court premises.
Besigye, 68, has faced arrest and assault many times in his political career but has never been convicted of a crime.
Amnesty International also called for Besigye’s release, saying his “abduction clearly violated international human rights law and the process of extradition with its requisite fair trial protections”.
Besigye’s troubles are being watched closely by Ugandans anxious over political manoeuvres ahead of presidential elections next year. Although Mr Museveni is expected to seek re-election, some observers believe the 80-year-old may step aside.
Mr Museveni has no obvious successor within the ranks of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, one reason for widespread fears over an unpredictable political transition.
Besigye, a qualified physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group.
He is a fierce critic of Mr Museveni, for whom he once served as military assistant and personal doctor before they fell out in the 1990s over what Besigye said was Mr Museveni’s slide into authoritarianism.
