UGANDA has reversed a controversial plan to hold a military trial for a prominent opposition leader due to his failing health.
Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi announced late on Sunday that Kizza Besigye would have his case transferred to a civilian court. The announcement came amid reports that Besigye, who is on hunger strike, had been temporarily moved to a medical clinic.
Baryomunsi had earlier visited Besigye in prison to urge him to end his hunger strike while his case is moved. The veteran opposition leader is charged with illegal firearm possession and threatening state security.
Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, called the minister’s visit “highly suspicious”.
“You are not a concerned visitor. You are his captor,” she said on X. “We will hold you and your government fully accountable for any harm that comes to him.”
A longtime critic of President Yoweri Museveni, Besigye has been in a Luzira Maximum Security Prison in the capital, Kampala, since November. His lawyers say he was “kidnapped” in neighbouring Kenya and forcibly brought to Uganda.
Rights groups and opposition lawmakers have condemned the arrest. Amnesty International has branded Besigye’s detainment a “travesty of justice”.
Besigye started a hunger strike last week, an act his wife described as his “act of protest” against the “illegal detention”. His lawyer warned on Thursday that the opposition figure had grown “critically ill”.
Public outcry over the detention of Besigye grew after he appeared in court on Friday looking frail and struggling to walk.
On Sunday, Besigye was rushed in a wheelchair to a health clinic in Kampala. A relative told local media that the opposition figure was “not in a good situation”.
