Ugandan Opposition Leader Besigye Is Unconscious in Hospital after Collapsing in Court, Wife Says

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been hospitalized and is unconscious after he collapsed during a courtroom session of his treason trial, according to his wife and others who are urging authorities to set him free after repeated bail denials. Besigye fell in the dock on Wednesday while protesting his trial without lawyers of his own choosing, after authorities detained his main attorney, Erias Lukwago, and charged him with alleged failure to report acts of treason. Besigye’s wife, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, said in a post on X that Besigye is unconscious in an intensive care unit at a public hospital in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. “Before he collapsed, he cried out that he was being injured,” she said. … Besigye once was a trusted ally of Museveni in the guerrilla war that propelled him to power in 1986, and even served as Museveni’s personal doctor and military assistant. He later became a fierce critic of the president, condemning what he saw as a descent into authoritarianism that betrayed the democratic promise of Museveni’s early years. Term and age limits on the presidency have since been scrapped. (AP)