Opposition chief Kizza Besigye, 70, who ran in opposition to President Yoweri Museveni in 4 presidential elections, was admitted to intensive care after he collapsed yesterday throughout a court docket listening to within the capital, Kampala. Besigye faces treason fees that carry the demise penalty, which he stringently denies and that are broadly considered as politically motivated.
This episode comes amid a bigger crackdown on political dissent. Final month, Besigye’s lawyer Erias Lukwago was detained by the military after he tried to serve court docket papers on army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and certain successor to the 81-year-old president.
Besigye’s household, opposition figures and human rights teams have referred to as for his launch on medical and humanitarian grounds. His son urged Museveni and Kainerugaba to point out mercy, writing in an open letter posted on social media that “no son ought to must witness his father attain such a state.”
For extra on Kainerugaba’s function within the Museveni regime’s repression and Uganda’s looming succession disaster, learn Michael Mutyaba’s WPR briefing from January.
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