UGANDA: Gov’t to drop military trial of hunger-striking opponent

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Uganda’s government on Sunday said it would drop a military trial against opposition figurehead Kizza Besigye, urging him to give up his hunger strike in jail, a minister said.
Besigye, a former ally turned rival of longtime President Yoweri Museveni, went on a hunger strike on February 10 in protest at his detention.
Charging him with treason for allegedly threatening “national security”, the government has vowed to try him in a military court, despite a Supreme Court ruling that such a move against a civilian is unconstitutional.
Now, however, “the government is fast-tracking the transfer of Besigye’s case from the court martial to the civil court,” cabinet spokesman and information minister Chris Baryomunsi said. “As a government, we are complying with the ruling of the Supreme Court.”
The minister said in an earlier message on X that he had visited Besigye in prison on Sunday “in the presence of his personal doctors” and “asked him to resume taking food” pending the transfer.