Kampala (AFP) - Uganda faced international condemnation as veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye appeared in a military court on Wednesday following his apparent abduction from neighbouring Kenya.

The United Nations and multiple rights groups expressed concern over Kenya’s role in his extradition and Uganda’s crackdown on the opposition.

Besigye, 68, a medical doctor and longtime critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was brought to the General Court Martial in the Ugandan capital under a heavily armed military escort.

He appeared in the dock with another opposition figure, Hajji Lutale Kamulegeya, who was also snatched in Nairobi, his lawyer Erias Lukwago told AFP.

The prosecution alleged they were in possession of two pistols and had “solicited logistical support in Uganda, Greece and other countries with the aim of compromising the country’s national security”, Lukwago said.

Besigye, a retired army colonel, denied the charges and insisted he was now a civilian and should not be tried in a military tribunal.

He was remanded to Luzira prison until December 2.

Once Museveni’s trusted personal physician, Besigye has been repeatedly targeted by the authorities since falling out with the president in the late 1990s and running unsuccessfully against him in four elections.

His wife Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, said on X that her husband was kidnapped Saturday while in Nairobi for a book launch by Kenyan opposition politician Martha Karua.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “extremely concerned” about Besigye’s situation.

Amnesty International said he was kidnapped from an apartment complex in central Nairobi.

“This is not the first time a foreign dissident has been abducted on Kenyan soil. It is part of a growing and worrying trend of transnational repression,” Amnesty said.

Kenya’s foreign ministry permanent secretary Korir Sing’oei told Citizen TV that the incident was “regrettable” but insisted: “This is not an act of the Kenyan government. It’s not the act of our security officials,” and said an investigation had been launched.

Last month, Kenya admitted to allowing four Turkish refugees to be repatriated, despite evidence they were abducted in Nairobi and forcibly returned without due process.

- ‘Back to dark days’ -

Ugandan government spokesman Chris Baryomunsi sought to justify Besigye’s extradition, telling reporters: “You can be arrested from anywhere because countries have treaties or instruments that they signed between them that allow for extradition.”

The government has cracked down on the opposition in recent months.

In July, 36 members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) – the party Besigye founded two decades ago – were deported from Kenya and tried in Uganda on terrorism charges.

Bobi Wine, another prominent Ugandan opposition leader and former presidential candidate who has been arrested multiple times, condemned the “blatant abuse of the law by the regime here in Uganda, and sadly the authorities in Kenya”.

“We are back to the dark days when Ugandans were casually picked from the streets of Nairobi and returned to Uganda to be tortured, jailed and others executed,” Wine wrote on X.

- Friends to foes -

Museveni and Besigye were once close, fighting together in the 1980s bush war to overthrow Milton Obote.

They became foes when Besigye broke ranks with the ruling National Resistance Movement and ran for the presidency in 2001, later forming the FDC with other disaffected NRM members.

Lately, the opposition has been concerned about the meteoric rise of Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is now head of Uganda’s defence forces.

Besigye married Byanyima, who was previously romantically linked to Museveni, in 1999.

Over the years, Besigye has faced multiple arrests and spurious charges including rape and treason, while he and his supporters have often been teargassed, beaten and harassed.

Besigye recently broke from the FDC, forming a new party called the People’s Front for Freedom, of which his co-accused is a member.

burs-er/gv