The UN rights chief on Thursday urged the Ugandan government to release opposition politician Kizza Besigye following his apparent abduction in Kenya, and called for an investigation into “the circumstances of his abduction”.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement that he was “shocked by the abduction of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye in Kenya on 16 November 2024 and his forced return to Uganda”.
“I urge the government to release him, and to ensure that any further steps taken on charges are fully consistent with international human rights law,” Turki said.
“The circumstances surrounding her kidnapping should also be fully investigated.”
Besigye, a 68-year-old medical doctor and longtime critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was “held in incommunicado detention” before appearing in a military court in Kampala on Wednesday, he said.
Turk warned that the charges against him for illegal firearms possession and security offenses “could carry the death penalty”.
Besigye appeared in the dock along with another opposition leader, Haji Lutale Kamulegeya, who was also snatched in Nairobi, his lawyer Arias Lukwago told AFP.
Prosecutors alleged he had two pistols and that he had “solicited military assistance in Uganda, Greece and other countries with the aim of compromising the country’s national security”, Lukwago said.
Besigye, a retired army colonel, denied the charges and insisted he was now a civilian and should not be tried in a military tribunal.
He was sent to Luzira prison until 2 December.
Besigye, once Museveni’s trusted personal physician, has been repeatedly targeted by authorities since falling out with the president in the late 1990s and unsuccessfully contesting against him in four elections.
His wife Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations program on HIV and AIDS, first raised the alarm on Were in.
In the latest post on Thursday, he insisted that he had “not owned a gun in the last 20 years”, and that he should not be tried in a military court.
Turk highlighted that Besigye’s forced return to Uganda “follows the abduction of 36 other party members from Kenya in July, who were later returned to Uganda and charged with terrorism”.
“Such kidnappings of Ugandan opposition leaders and supporters must stop, as well as the practice of prosecuting civilians in military courts in Uganda, which is extremely worrying,” he said.
He pointed to the UN Human Rights Committee’s findings that “civilians tried in Ugandan military courts do not receive the same guarantees of due process as civilian courts”, and its recommendation that “Uganda, without delay, Removes courts’ jurisdiction “over citizens”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
