Reuters
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A outstanding Ugandan opposition politician was kidnapped throughout a e book launch in Kenya over the weekend, transferred to Uganda and is being held at a army jail in Kampala, his spouse mentioned on Wednesday.
Kizza Besigye has run towards Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in 4 elections and misplaced every time, though he has rejected the outcomes, alleging fraud and voter intimidation. He has been arrested dozens of instances earlier than.
“I request the (authorities) of Uganda to launch my husband Dr Kizza Besigye from the place he’s being held instantly,” mentioned his spouse Winnie Byanyima.
A spokesman for the Ugandan army couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
“As police, we don’t have him, so we are able to’t make any remark,” Ugandan police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke advised Reuters.
A spokesperson for Kenya’s nationwide police didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In July, Kenyan authorities detained 36 members of Besigye’s Discussion board for Democratic Change (FDC) get together, one in every of Uganda’s most important opposition teams, and deported them to Uganda the place they had been charged with terrorism-related offenses.
Besigye, who was Museveni’s doctor through the guerrilla battle however later grew to become an outspoken critic, was kidnapped on Saturday through the launch of a e book by veteran Kenyan opposition politician Martha Karua, Byanyima wrote on the social media platform X.
“I’m now reliably knowledgeable that he’s in a army jail in Kampala,” mentioned Byanyima, who’s the chief director of UNAIDS, the United Nations program on HIV/AIDS. “We his household and his legal professionals demand to see him. He’s not a soldier. Why is he being held in a army jail?”
Museveni’s authorities has been accused of repeated human rights abuses towards opposition leaders and supporters, together with unlawful detentions, torture and extra-judicial killings.
Officers deny the accusations and say these arrested are detained legally and processed appropriately by the court docket system.
