Geneva, Switzerland:

The UN rights chief on Thursday urged the Ugandan government to release opposition politician Kizza Besigye after his apparent kidnapping in Kenya, demanding an investigation into “the circumstances of his abduction”.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement that he was “shocked by the abduction of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye on 16 November 2024 in Kenya and his forcible return to Uganda”.

“I urge the government to release him, and to ensure any further steps taken on allegations are conducted fully in line with international human rights law,” Turk said.

“There also must be full investigations into the circumstances of his abduction.”

Besigye, 68, a medical doctor and longtime critic of President Yoweri Museveni, had first been “held in incommunicado detention” before appearing in a military court in Kampala on Wednesday, he said.

Turk warned that the charges against him of illegal firearms possession and security offences “could attract the death penalty”.

Besigye appeared in the dock with another opposition figure, Hajji Lutale Kamulegeya, who was also snatched in Nairobi, his lawyer Erias Lukwago told AFP.

The prosecution alleged they were in possession of two pistols and had “solicited logistical support in Uganda, Greece and other countries with the aim of compromising the country’s national security”, Lukwago said. 

Besigye, a retired army colonel, denied the charges and insisted he was now a civilian and should not be tried in a military tribunal.

He was remanded to Luzira prison until December 2.

Once Museveni’s trusted personal physician, Besigye has been repeatedly targeted by the authorities since falling out with the president in the late 1990s and running unsuccessfully against him in four elections. 

His wife Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, first sounded the alarm on X saying her husband was kidnapped while in Nairobi for a book launch by Kenyan opposition politician Martha Karua.

In fresh posts on Thursday, she insisted that he had “not owned a gun in the last 20 years”, and should not be tried in a military court.

Turk highlighted that Besigye’s forced return to Uganda “follows the abduction from Kenya in July of 36 other members of the party who were subsequently returned to Uganda and charged with terrorism”.

“Such abductions of Ugandan opposition leaders and supporters must stop, as must the deeply concerning practice in Uganda of prosecuting civilians in military courts,” he said.

He pointed to findings by the UN Human Rights Committee that “civilians tried in Uganda’s military courts do not receive the same due process guarantees as those in civilian courts”, and its recommendation “that Uganda remove, without further delay, the jurisdiction of military courts over civilians”.

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