Winnie Byanyima says no hope for Besigye winning court case

Byanyima said although the case may eventually be concluded, she does not expect justice.

Winnie Byanyima has said she has little hope that her husband, Kizza Besigye, will receive a fair outcome in the court case he is currently facing.

Speaking in an interview with BBC, Byanyima described the legal process against Besigye as deeply flawed and politically driven.

She raised concern about his health, saying it has deteriorated due to prison conditions.

“His health is continuously undermined by the conditions of prison. He lives in squalid conditions; in solitary confinement. It also has an impact on his mental health,” she said.

Byanyima added that although the case may eventually be concluded, she does not expect justice.

“I supposed his case will be concluded; what is my concern is that it will not be fairly concluded,” she said.

Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate and long-time critic of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has faced repeated arrests over the years, often linked to protests and political activism.

Byanyima criticised how the current case was handled from the beginning.

“Everything about this case has been in breach of the laws of Uganda; starting from how he was abducted in Kenyan, bundled in a car and taken across the border in the night, dumped in a military jail, brought before a military court; we had to fight up to the supreme court and we got a ruling that a civilian should not be in a military court,” she said.

Uganda’s Supreme Court has previously ruled that civilians should not be tried in military courts, a decision that has shaped several high-profile cases involving opposition figures.

However, Byanyima said authorities failed to act on the ruling.

“But they wouldn't release him even though the supreme court had announced that he should not be there. He had to be on hunger strike. And since then, it's been a year and four months, he was denied bail four times; and he is framed,” she said.

She further claimed that evidence in the case had been fabricated.