Prominent Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has appeared in a military court in Kampala after his wife said he had been kidnapped in neighbouring Kenya.
Besigye, 68, a doctor and critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was brought to the General Court Martial under a heavily armed military escort on Wednesday.
His lawyer, Erias Lukwago told AFP news agency that Besigye appeared in the dock with Hajji Lutale Kamulegeya, another Ugandan opposition figure.
Lukwago said the two men were accused of being in possession of two pistols and had “solicited logistical support in Uganda, Greece and other countries with the aim of compromising the country’s national security”.
“[Besigye] has denied the charges and challenged the court’s jurisdiction to try him and he has been remanded to Luzira prison until December 2,” he added.
Earlier, Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima had called on the Ugandan government to release her husband immediately.
In a post on X, Byanyima, who is the executive director of the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, said Besigye was kidnapped on Saturday while he was in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to attend a book launch event of another politician.
“I am now reliably informed that he is in a military jail in Kampala,” she wrote. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”
The Ugandan military has not commented on the incident. But, Chris Baryomunsi, Uganda’s information minister, said while the Ugandan government did not carry out abductions, any arrests abroad would be made in collaboration with a host country.
“So being arrested from Kenya should not be a problem. The assurance we give the country is that the [Ugandan] government does not arrest somebody and keeps him or her incommunicado for a long time,” he told Uganda’s public broadcaster.
However, Korir Singoei, Kenya’s principal secretary of foreign affairs, told local media that Kenya was not involved in the alleged incident.
In July, Kenyan authorities arrested 36 members of Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, one of Uganda’s main opposition groups.
They were then deported to Uganda, where they were indicted on charges related to “terrorism”.
Besigye has been arrested numerous times over the years. He was once the personal doctor for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during the country’s rebel-led war but later became an outspoken critic and political opponent.
He ran against Museveni, who has ruled the East African country since 1986, four times. He lost all the elections but rejected the results and alleged fraud and voter intimidation.
Over the decades, Museveni’s government has been accused of repeated human rights violations against opposition leaders and supporters, including illegal detentions, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Authorities in Uganda have rejected these accusations, claiming those arrested are being held legally and taken through due process in the judicial system.
