(Bloomberg) -- Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye is being held in a military jail after he was arrested in neighboring Kenya’s capital over the weekend and moved to Kampala, according to his wife.
“He was kidnapped last Saturday while he was in Nairobi,” Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, said on her X account. “We his family and his lawyers demand to see him. He is not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military jail?”
Video footage screened by Ugandan media showed a smiling Besigye arriving at a courthouse on Wednesday surrounded by military police and waving at his supporters.
The military court in Kampala charged Besigye with mobilizing logistical support internationally with the intention of disrupting the peace, and the illegal possession of a pistol and six rounds of ammunition, said Francis Mwijukye, a lawmaker and member of Besigye’s faction of the Forum for Democratic Change. Besigye was prosecuted along with a fellow party member, who faces the same charges, and they were remanded until Dec. 2.
Isaac Mwaura, a spokesman for Kenya’s government, said it wasn’t aware of any abduction or arrest. Uganda’s Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi said on UBC TV that the government doesn’t arrest and keep people incommunicado for a long time.
“You can be arrested from anywhere because countries have treaties that allow for extradition,” Baryomunsi said. “Being arrested from Kenya would not be a problem.”
Besigye, who has failed to unseat Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in four elections, has been arrested numerous times and says he’s been tortured while in custody. He’s previously been shot in the hand and doused in pepper spray during protests.
Museveni, 80, has ruled Africa’s biggest coffee exporter since coming to power in 1986 after a five-year guerrilla war.
--With assistance from Monique Vanek.
(Updates with charges against Besigye in fourth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the day he appeared in court.)
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