Kizza Besigye, one of Uganda's most prominent opposition figures, collapsed during a court hearing in Kampala on Wednesday and was rushed to hospital in critical condition, prompting urgent calls from his family and human rights groups for his release on medical grounds. Witnesses in the High Court reported that Besigye shouted "stop" repeatedly about his legal representation before falling in the dock. His wife, Winnie Byanyima — the Executive Director of UNAIDS — said on social media that he was unconscious in an intensive care unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda's largest public facility. "Before he collapsed, he cried out that he was being injured," she wrote.

Besigye was initially refusing treatment from government medical personnel, with Byanyima demanding he be allowed to see his personal physician at a private clinic. The ICU wing where he is being treated is guarded by heavily armed security officers. Several hours after his collapse, his sister, Dr Olive Kobusingye, who is also his personal doctor, was eventually permitted to see him — despite reportedly having been present in the courtroom and initially barred from attending to him there. Close associates said they were denied access to Besigye at the hospital.

The circumstances surrounding Besigye's trial have drawn widespread criticism. His main lawyer, Erias Lukwago, was seized by the army last month and is currently in jail. A second lead attorney, prominent Kenyan advocate Martha Karua, was barred from entering Uganda when she flew in to represent him. Besigye faces treason charges — which carry the death penalty — after disappearing in Nairobi in November 2024 and being presented before a military tribunal in Kampala. His case was later transferred to a civilian court. His political party insists the charges are fabricated and politically motivated.

Besigye's journey from ally to adversary of President Yoweri Museveni spans decades. The two men fought together in the guerrilla war that brought Museveni to power in 1986, and Besigye served as Museveni's personal doctor and military assistant. He broke with the president in 1999, becoming a fierce critic of what he described as a descent into authoritarianism, and contested the presidency multiple times before last running in 2016. Museveni, who has scrapped constitutional term and age limits, is now serving his seventh consecutive term. His son, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has previously referred to Besigye as "a dead man walking."

Besigye's son, Adam Ampa, published an open letter appealing directly to President Museveni and General Kainerugaba to release his father on humanitarian grounds. "Regardless of politics, no son should have to witness his father reach such a state while standing before the very law he served and dedicated his life," he wrote. Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine, who has gone into exile following the January presidential election, described Besigye's appearance in court while visibly unwell as a "shocking violation of his most basic rights." This is not the first health crisis Besigye has suffered in detention; he was hospitalised in February 2025 after undertaking a hunger strike, and again earlier this year.