FILE - Ugandan opposition leader and four-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, stands in the dock at the Makindye Martial Court in Kampala, Uganda, Nov. 20. 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, File)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The party of opposition figure Kizza Besigye was launched in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Tuesday, with its jailed leader behind bars for alleged treason.

Supporters at the event carried a framed portrait of Besigye, who was expected to address the launch of his People's Front for Freedom, either by video conference or through a written message.

Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, has been jailed since November on charges he plotted to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

Prosecutors cite treason, a crime that carries the death penalty in the east African country. They say Besigye solicited military support overseas to destabilize national security. Besigye’s attorneys and followers say the charges are politically motivated, calculated to remove him from political contestation over Uganda's future after Museveni, who is 80.

Besigye has been repeatedly denied bail even as his attorneys cite his poor health.

Uganda's next presidential election is set for January 2026.

Museveni, who first took power by force in 1986, has declared his candidacy in a presidential bid that, if successful, would bring him closer to a half-century in power. The opposition figure known as Bobi Wine will also be a candidate, reprising their contest in the 2021 election. It remains unclear if the jailed Besigye will be on the ballot.

Lawmaker Ibrahim Ssemujju, a spokesman for the People's Front for Freedom, told reporters on the eve of the party's launch that Besigye was jailed “for no crime committed but because it gives Mr. Museveni and his son gratification that Besigye is in jail, that they have conquered him."

“I think they may even throw a party to celebrate,” he charged. “But Dr. Besigye will speak to us as our leader, leader of our party but also leader of our struggles.”

Museveni's son, army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has accused Besigye of plotting to kill his father, and once said the opposition figure should be hanged. Kainerugaba has repeatedly asserted his wish to succeed his father in the presidency, raising fears of hereditary rule in Uganda.

Museveni has said Besigye must answer for “the very serious offenses he is alleged to have been planning," and has called for “a quick trial so that facts come out.”

Many Ugandans expect an unpredictable political transition from Museveni, who has no obvious successor within the ranks of the ruling National Resistance Movement party. Real power is concentrated in the military and intelligence apparatus.

Besigye, a physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group. He has long been a fierce critic of Museveni, for whom he once served as a military assistant and personal doctor.

Uganda has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from colonial rule six decades ago.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025