The wife of Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye says he has been kidnapped and is now being held in a military prison.
In a message on X, Winnie Byanyima wrote that her husband was arrested last Saturday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi during a book presentation.
“I have now been reliably informed that he is in a military prison in Kampala,” she said, demanding that the Ugandan government release her husband.
BBC News has asked the Ugandan government for comment on the matter.
Besigye, 68, led the political party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), where he contested four presidential elections and lost to incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.
“We, his family and his lawyers demand to see him,” his wife wrote on X.
‘He’s not a soldier. Why is he being held in a military prison?’
Winnie Byanyima is a human rights lawyer and executive director of UNAIDS, the joint UN program designed to eradicate AIDS.
Kizza Besigye was Museveni’s personal physician, but he later became opposition leader and called the East African country’s leader a “dictator.”
He has alleged that previous presidential elections were rigged, a claim denied by the government.
The opposition figure has been arrested repeatedly in the past.
On one occasion he was shot in the hand, on another occasion he suffered eye damage after being doused with pepper spray.
Authorities have accused him of provoking them, and he has been charged with incitement to violence.
