Jailed Ugandan opposition figure Besigye’s health is failing, his party says

The health of jailed Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye is failing, his party said on Tuesday, after he was driven overnight to a medical facility in the capital of Kampala.

Besigye’s health “has reached a critical and deteriorating state,” the People’s Front for Freedom said in a statement that also demanded unrestricted access to Besigye by his personal doctors and family.

Besigye, a veteran politician who was Uganda’s most prominent opposition figure before the rise of Bobi Wine, is being detained in a maximum-security jail in Kampala. He is set to be tried over treason charges he says are politically motivated.

“It is a tragedy that a man who has dedicated his life to the health and freedom of others is being denied his own right to medical dignity,” said the statement by the People’s Front for Freedom. “We hold the regime and the prison authorities fully accountable for his