Uganda's main opposition leader again refused to answer terrorism charges in a military court on Friday, as a political crisis intensified in this east African country ahead of presidential elections next year.
Kizza Besigye first refused to enter a plea on Thursday when charges of terrorism, which carry the death penalty, and illegal firearms possession were filed against him in the military court, which is controlled by the president's trusted aides. Earlier this month, civilian prosecutors accused Besigye of treason.
The military judge ordered Besigye held until the trial proper begins on Dec. 19. Later on Friday, the civil court granted bail, but Besigye remained imprisoned on the military charges.
PHOTO: EPA
Besigye was greeted by huge crowds when he returned from exile last month to run for president. He has mounted the strongest challenge to President Yoweri Museveni's 19-year rule.
Museveni had been hailed as a reformer but his recent crackdown on Besigye has brought criticism from international allies and human rights organizations.
"Nobody is trying to stop him from [running in] elections," Museveni told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a Commonwealth summit in Malta where he has faced pressure over the Besigye case.
Museveni, who has ruled for 19 years, said the international community was unreasonably biased in favor of the Ugandan opposition.
atrocities
Meanwhile, conditions in northern Uganda are so appalling that UN agencies have decided they have to beef up efforts to curb atrocities against some 2 million people who have fled their homes because of Africa's longest-running civil war, a key official said on Friday.
"It's one of the least addressed and one of the biggest humanitarian crises that we have in the region," said Dennis McNamara, who heads the UN humanitarian office's efforts to help people displaced in their own countries.
McNamara had just returned from a visit to northern Uganda, where the Lord's Resistance Army has been waging war on the Ugandan government for 19 years.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
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