Uganda’s main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, was released on bail and greeted about 12 000 cheering supporters outside the courthouse where he is on trial on charges he says were fabricated to keep him out of next month’s presidential election.
Thousands of opposition supporters also celebrated his release on Monday in the streets of key towns in eastern, north-eastern and south-western Uganda, the independent K-FM radio station reported.
Besigye — the first credible challenger to President Yoweri Museveni’s 19-year rule — is being tried in the High Court for alleged treason and rape. Separately, he is charged by a military tribunal with terrorism and illegal possession of firearms.
He has denied all the charges, which supporters say were trumped up to keep him from running against Museveni in February elections.
High Court Judge John Bosco Katutsi ordered on Monday that Besigye be released on bail, ruling that the military court’s order to detain him was illegal because it was issued after the civilian court suspended the military tribunal’s trial.
After the ruling, Besigye raised his hand and flashed a victory sign in court. Minor scuffles broke out when prison warders tried to keep him in custody, but Besigye managed to leave the chamber to sign release documents.
He returned briefly for a hearing on the rape charge, but it was suspended until Wednesday because of high tension over his release.
Outside the courthouse, police fired live bullets and tear gas to scatter a huge crowd of opposition supporters that broke through a police cordon to greet Besigye as he left the court and waved from the open roof of a sports utility vehicle.
An Associated Press reporter saw military police beating some civilians in an effort to disperse the crowd. The army deployed armoured personnel carriers in the city. Besigye told journalists he was concerned he would be re-arrested.
Besigye was detained in November, shortly after returning from self-imposed exile to campaign for the presidential election. He faces a maximum death penalty if convicted of either the terrorism or treason charges.
”We shall continue to struggle against oppression,” he said. ”This government is falling. There are so many people in illegal detention like me, and we shall struggle by all possible means to restore good governance in this country.”
The civilian High Court had suspended the military proceedings after Besigye’s lawyers argued he could not receive a fair trial before the military court, which is controlled by trusted aides to Museveni.
”The remand warrant of the general court martial expired on November 25 and has never been extended because the High Court ordered the general court-martial proceedings to stay,” Katutsi said in his ruling on Besigye’s release on bail. ”The moment the proceeding in the general court martial are stayed, all their actions, including extending the remand warrant, are stayed.” — Sapa-AP