A Ugandan court on Monday refused for a third time to release detained opposition leader Kizza Besigye, as a judge set a trial date for next week for him to face treason and rape charges.
Amid confusion over whether Besigye will be allowed to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in elections next year, a High Court justice declined to order his provisional release despite an earlier decision to grant him bail.
Justice Remmy Kasule said the decision will have to wait until Uganda’s Constitutional Court rules on Besigye’s motion to disqualify a military tribunal from prosecuting him on separate terrorism and weapons charges.
”This court is subordinate to the Constitutional Court,” he said. ”This court, therefore, declines to entertain an application for temporary release.”
Besigye, seen as Museveni’s top rival in elections set for March, has remained in prison since mid-November, despite winning bail from the High Court, due to the military charges on which he is to face a court martial on December 19.
On Monday, the High Court set the same date, December 19, for the start of Besigye’s trial on treason and rape charges, according to a judicial document signed by presiding Judge James Ogoola.
His lawyers have challenged the competence of a military tribunal to prosecute a civilian, but the Constitutional Court has yet to hear the petition and he has lost two earlier requests to be freed.
Besigye and his supporters claim the charges against him are political and intended to prevent him from standing in the elections against Museveni, who has drawn international criticism for the prosecution.
Museveni has denied the case is political and has said he hopes Besigye, his former physician, will be acquitted so that he could beat him in the elections, but it remains unclear if the opposition chief would be allowed to run.
After first suggesting Besigye would be allowed to submit his candidacy papers from prison before Thursday’s deadline, Ugandan authorities have now said his nomination would be inappropriate given the serious charges he faces.
Besigye, the leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, fled Uganda after losing 2001 polls to Museveni, who later accused him of trying to foment a coup.
He returned to the East African country on October 26 after four years of self-imposed exile, vowing to fight Museveni’s ”dictatorship” in the upcoming polls.
But Besigye was detained three weeks later, sparking deadly riots in the capital where authorities have now banned rallies in his support. — Sapa-AFP