Ugandan court charged opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye with treason for declaring himself President of the East African nation and challenging this year elections that saw President Yoweri Museveni win.
Besigye has been repeatedly arrested by the government and allegedly been beaten up and intimidate by authorities. However, the charges of treason that are punishable by death according to Reuters has kicked a notch higher the confrontation between the politician and the government.
There was tension on Friday in Uganda’s Moroto town as shops and business closed as everything came to a standstill with the news of Besigye being transferred to different police cells reports The Sunday Monitor. Further saying that, hundreds of locals abandoned their homes and poured into the streets to bid farewell to Dr.Besigye with gifts of tomatoes, chicken, turkey and cash which they never got to give him since he was transported to the court under tight security by counter terrorism and anti-riot police and military personnel along with a police escort fleet.
“He has openly declared his intention to topple this government, that’s not constitutional,” said Government spokesman Shaban Bantariza
Besigye was arrested in the capital Kampala on Wednesday, on charges of addressing an illegal assembly and was taken to Moroto town, 500 km (300 miles) away near the border with Kenya.
“He was charged with treason yesterday (Friday) in Moroto magistrates’ court and remanded to prison,” Semujju Nganda, an opposition legislator and spokesman for Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party told Reuters.
