Besigye is critically in jail after hunger strike, lawyer says

Uganda's veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye stands in the dock at the Makindye Martial Court in Kampala, on November 20, 2024. - Leading Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye appeared in a military court in Kampala on November 20, 2024 after his reported abduction in neighbouring Kenya. [AFP]

Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye is "critically ill" in jail three days after starting a hunger strike to protest his detention, one of his lawyers told AFP on Thursday.

"We visited him in the prison yesterday but his medical condition is worrying. He is critically ill and needs urgent medical attention," lawyer Erias Lukwago said.

Lukwago had announced on Wednesday that Besigye was on hunger strike to protest his "illegal detention" and was too ill to attend court hearings.

"He is unable to move out of his prison cell," he said on Thursday.

He added that the hospital was ill-equipped to treat him and "he should be treated outside the prison if he is to survive."

Prison spokesman Frank Baine declined to comment on Besigye's condition, but told AFP: "Our medical facilities are equipped to handle Besigye's health just like it does with other prisoners".

He branded Besigye's lawyers "alarmists" and vowed: "We shall manage his condition as long as he is under our mandate."

Besigye was once President Yoweri Museveni's trusted personal doctor but became a government target after joining the opposition 25 years ago and unsuccessfully running for president four times.

He was abducted in Kenya in November and has been facing the death penalty on treason charges in a court martial that his wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima, has called a "sham".