KAMPALA, Uganda — Jailed opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye has been transferred from Luzira Prison to JCRC Hospital in Kampala as his wife, Winnie Byanyima, renewed her demand that he be allowed to leave Uganda for medical treatment in Geneva.
Byanyima said Besigye was moved to the hospital after dark on Friday and remained in a severely weakened condition, struggling to walk, speak, write and hold objects steadily.
“After dark, Dr Kizza Besigye was moved from Luzira Prison to JCRC hospital today. He is still very weak. He struggles to walk, speak, write or even hold anything steadily,” Byanyima said.
She appealed to the authorities to allow her to take Besigye to Geneva, where she said he could receive specialised treatment while surrounded by his family.
“I am asking for one thing — let me bring him home to Geneva for proper medical care, surrounded by his family,” she said.
Byanyima argued that Besigye’s long history of facing legal proceedings meant there was no reason to deny him medical treatment outside prison.
“He has been arrested more than 50 times. He has faced case after case. He has never run away from justice,” she said.
Her latest appeal comes less than a month after Besigye collapsed during proceedings at the High Court in Kampala on July 29. He was subsequently admitted to Mulago National Referral Hospital before being returned to Luzira Prison Hospital on August 7. Uganda Prisons Service said at the time that his condition was steadily improving under the care of its medical team.
Byanyima has disputed the official assessment of his recovery, repeatedly saying that Besigye remained unable to perform basic tasks without assistance. She has previously called for his release on bail so he could receive treatment in Geneva and return to Uganda after recovering.
The latest development comes as Besigye’s treason trial continues in his absence, with the prosecution presenting audio and video recordings that it says demonstrate meetings and discussions connected to an alleged plot to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni.
Questions over prosecution video
The prosecution’s evidence has itself come under scrutiny during testimony by its principal witness, Andrew Wilson, an American private security investigator.
Wilson has presented recordings which he says were secretly made during meetings involving Besigye and his associate Joel Wakayima in Geneva, as well as other locations.
On Tuesday, August 25, Wilson presented another video that offered clearer images than recordings played a day earlier. He identified a white man in the footage as himself and said the recording showed him with Wakayima and Besigye.
But the improved visuals did not resolve problems with the audio.
The sound was described as distorted, echoing and noisy. Besigye’s laughter could occasionally be heard, but the voice of the man closest to the recording device could not be clearly discerned. Wilson therefore had to explain to trial judge Emmanuel Baguma what he claimed the people in the recording were discussing.
Wilson maintained that the conversation involved a plan to overthrow the government of President Museveni.
The court even changed the courtroom and playback equipment in an attempt to improve the audio, but the problems persisted.
Then came another question: the date.
Wilson told court that he made the recording in Geneva on January 28, 2024. Yet the video played in court carried a timestamp of May 24, 2020.
The discrepancy has raised questions about the provenance and timing of the footage, although the presence of an incorrect or altered timestamp on a recording does not, by itself, establish that the underlying evidence is false.
The issue has nevertheless become part of the defence’s wider challenge to the prosecution’s case. Family members have also questioned the 2020 date, with a message shared by Byanyima recalling that Besigye was at his Kasangati home on May 24, 2020, during Uganda’s Covid-19 lockdown.
Earlier recordings presented by Wilson faced similar difficulties. Reports from Monday’s proceedings said much of the more than two hours of footage was difficult to hear, while the people appearing in some of the clips could not easily be identified.
Wilson has told court that he used hidden cameras and microphones embedded in various devices, including a necklace, flash drive, phone and other equipment, to record meetings he said took place in Geneva, Athens and Nairobi. He has also testified that crucial recordings from a Nairobi meeting were lost after Kenyan security officials seized or interfered with his recording equipment.
NTV reported that it could not independently verify the identities of people in the recordings or Wilson’s interpretation of what was discussed.
Lutale’s daughter joins defence team
While questions over the recordings continued, Besigye’s co-accused, Hajji Obeid Lutale, obtained new legal representation, including his daughter, Mariam Lutale.
Mariam has joined a four-member team representing her father alongside Farouk Kizito Kamulegeya, Wilson Kato and Sylas Ogul of Baraka Legal Associates Advocates. Court was informed that Lutale formally instructed the lawyers in a letter dated August 24.
The development follows the withdrawal of several lawyers who had previously represented Besigye and Lutale, after their preferred legal team was disrupted by the arrest of former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and the deportation of Kenyan lawyer Martha Karua.
The accused had rejected state-appointed lawyers, insisting on their right to choose their own representation. A recent High Court ruling, however, held that the denial of chosen counsel and detention of co-counsel had not, on the evidence before it, breached their right to a fair trial.
Mariam’s entry into the case adds an unusual personal dimension to the defence. She previously attracted attention during proceedings after becoming emotional while protesting decisions concerning her father’s prolonged detention.
The court proceedings therefore now carry two parallel battles: one over the evidence being used to establish the alleged treasonous conspiracy, and another over whether the accused can meaningfully participate in their own defence.
For Besigye, the second question has become increasingly inseparable from the first.
Byanyima is now asking why a man whose physical condition she says has deteriorated so severely should remain caught between prison, hospital and courtroom.
“Why drag a sick man from place to place? Why deny him the care of his family? Why force a trial on a man too ill to defend himself?” she asked.
“He needs care, not cruelty. This is not justice. It is persecution.”
The prosecution, meanwhile, continues to present its case against Besigye, Lutale and Captain Denis Oola. The High Court has allowed the proceedings to continue without Besigye after prison authorities said he declined to attend physically despite being offered virtual participation.
And so Uganda’s most politically charged trial is increasingly being fought on two fronts: what happened in the meetings captured in the recordings, and whether the man accused of participating in them is currently well enough to answer for himself.
The court will ultimately have to separate allegation from evidence. But before that legal question is settled, another question hangs over the proceedings: what does justice require when the accused is too sick to stand before the court?
