KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A court in Uganda on Wednesday charged an attorney for a jailed opposition leader with concealing treason, escalating a dispute with the country’s army chief whom the lawyer sought to hold accountable for alleged abuses.Erias Lukwago was charged before a magistrate’s court in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, days after he was seized and taken into custody on the orders of army chief Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba.Lukwago was charged with “misprision of treason,” a crime that the presiding magistrate said stems from his alleged failure to report acts of treason by others. He has denied the charges.Lukwago, the president of the People’s Front for Freedom opposition group, is an attorney for Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate who is jailed over treason charges in a separate case that his supporters see as politically motivated. Lukwago, a former mayor of Kampala, is an outspoken critic of President Yoweri Museveni and his son Kainerugaba.
The manner of Lukwago’s arrest, by soldiers who scaled the perimeter wall protecting his house, shocked many and raised concerns about the expanding powers of Kainerugaba, who wrote on social platform X that Lukwago would suffer “hurt and pain” and could spend 10 years in jail. Kainerugaba is active on X, where he frequently attacks his perceived opponents.
