by Nurat Uthman
The wife of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has said she does not expect him to get a fair trial after he was detained in neighbouring Kenya, brought home and accused of possessing weapons and other offences in a military court.
Winnie Byanyima said last week her husband was seized as he prepared to attend a book launch in Nairobi on Nov. 16 – in what both rights group Amnesty International and a senior official at Kenya’s foreign ministry have described as an abduction.
Uganda’s government spokesperson, Chris Baryomunsi, said last week his country does not carry out abductions, and that arrests abroad were done in collaboration with host countries, but did not comment on the specific case.
“In the military court, we do not expect to get justice, we can only wait for them to appear in a civilian court,” added Byanyima, who is also the Executive Director of U.N. agency UNAIDS.
Byanyima said the charges were politically motivated and urged President Yoweri Museveni “to stop and reflect, because this solution of criminalising and eliminating opposition through criminalisation is wrong”.
Uganda military spokesperson Felix Kulayigye dismissed her statement, 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 as a country and it dispenses justice effectively and judiciously.”
Besigye was once an ally and personal physician of Museveni while the now aging leader was in the bush battling the then government in the 1980s.
The two men fell out and Besigye went on to challenge and lose to Museveni in four presidential elections, each time rejecting the results as fraudulent.
Ugandan opposition and rights activists have long 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 and he had told her he heard the people who took him speaking a Ugandan language, leading him to conclude that they were Ugandan.
Byanyima urged Uganda’s Western donors, including the U.S. 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 added.
