Key Points
- Winnie Byanyima says her husband’s trial will not be fair.
- Rights groups criticize Kenya and Uganda for Besigye’s detention.
- Museveni’s government accused of targeting opposition through courts
The wife of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye said she does not expect him to receive a fair trial after he was detained in Kenya, brought back to Uganda, and accused of possessing weapons and other offenses in a military court.
Ugandan opposition leader detained in Kenya and returned home
Winnie Byanyima said last week that her husband was seized on Nov. 16 as he prepared to attend a book launch in Nairobi. Amnesty International and a senior Kenyan foreign ministry official have described the incident as an abduction.
Uganda’s government spokesperson, Chris Baryomunsi, denied the government carries out abductions, saying arrests abroad are conducted in collaboration with host countries, but did not comment on Besigye’s case specifically.
“In the military court, we do not expect to get justice,” Byanyima said in an interview Saturday in Kampala.
“We can only wait for them to appear in a civilian court,” said Byanyima, who is also the executive director of the U.N. agency UNAIDS.
She called the charges politically motivated and urged President Yoweri Museveni “to stop and reflect, because this solution of criminalizing and eliminating opposition through criminalization is wrong.”
Ugandan military spokesperson Felix Kulayigye dismissed her comments, saying the court would follow the law. “We have confidence in the court,” he said. “The court observes the rules and regulations of the country. It’s provided for in our judicial system and dispenses justice effectively and judiciously.”
Besigye was once an ally and personal physician to Museveni during the 1980s, when Museveni fought a guerilla war against Uganda’s then-government.
The two men later fell out, and Besigye has since challenged Museveni in four presidential elections, losing each time and rejecting the results as fraudulent.
Government denies wrongdoing, claims justice will be served
Ugandan opposition figures and rights activists have accused Museveni’s government of using the military court to punish political opponents, a charge the government denies.
Byanyima said she had visited her husband in prison, where he told her he heard the people who detained him speaking a Ugandan language, leading him to believe they were Ugandan.
Byanyima urged Uganda’s Western donors, including the United States and Britain, to press Ugandan authorities to release her husband.
“They should be speaking out about a government abducting an opposition leader from another country. That should be condemned,” she said.
According to reuters, Rights groups have criticized Kenya for deporting individuals to face prosecution in their home countries. Kenya’s government last week denied involvement in Besigye’s detention and said it was investigating the matter.
