Detained Ugandan opposition leader briefly taken ill after hunger strike

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was transferred back to prison on Monday after a medical emergency caused by his ongoing hunger strike, which has now lasted a week.

Four-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, who has been in detention since his abduction from Kenya on Nov. 16, is infirm and experiences episodes of hypertension, said his lawyer Erias Lukwago.

The 68-year-old politician has been on hunger strike for some days protesting his arrest and detention.

A military tribunal in Kampala has charged Besigye and an assistant with offenses related to illegal possession of a firearm and threatening national security.

Besigye also faces a separate charge of treachery, a crime under military law that carries the death penalty.

The military trial of Besigye has angered his supporters and drawn concern from rights groups. Amnesty International has 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.”

Uganda’s Supreme Court ruled last month that civilians can’t be court-martialed, questioning the competence of untrained military officers to dispense justice. But President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian leader who has held power since 1986, said he disagreed with the court’s decision and that “the country is not governed by the judges.”

Lukwago and other activists are trying to free Besigye based on the Supreme Court’s decision, but prison authorities say they have no order to release him.

Besigye’s wife, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, had asserted that he is on a hunger strike, an account disputed by prison authorities.

Besigye has faced arrest and assault many times in his political career but has never been convicted of a crime.

Besigye’s case is being watched closely by Ugandans anxious over political maneuvers ahead of presidential elections next year. Although Museveni is expected to seek re-election, some observers believe he may step aside.

Many expect an unpredictable political transition because Museveni has no obvious successor within the ranks of the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

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 Museveni, for whom he once served as a military assistant and personal doctor.