{"id":39786,"date":"2026-07-16T16:05:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39786"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:05:18","slug":"besigye-defies-ugandan-court-refuses-forced-lawyers-in-treason-trial","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/besigye-defies-ugandan-court-refuses-forced-lawyers-in-treason-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Besigye defies Ugandan court, refuses forced lawyers in treason trial \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ugandan opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has rejected state-appointed legal counsel in his ongoing treason trial, stating the lawyers are being forced upon him by the High Court.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old politician, a fierce and long-time rival of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has been in custody since late 2024 following his abduction in neighbouring Kenya and subsequent forced return to Uganda. His refusal to accept the state-vetted legal team comes as his preferred defense advocates have reportedly been arrested or blocked from entering the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>High Court Judge Emmanuel Baguma has granted Besigye a two-week window to secure independent legal representation. This ultimatum follows the prosecution&#8217;s formal submission of all evidence it intends to weaponise during the trial.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Besigye faces primary charges of treason, while his co-accused, Erias Lukwago, stands charged with misprision of treason.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15549,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-39786","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ugandan opposition leader Besigye rejects state lawyers in treason trial","published_date":"2026-07-16 16:04:13","news_description":"Ugandan opposition leader Besigye rejects state lawyers in treason trial","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39790,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39786\/revisions\/39790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}