Prominent detained Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye collapsed on Wednesday while attending a court session in the capital Kampala where he is on trial for treason, a senior official in his party said.

Besigye, 70, has been in custody since November 2024 after he was detained together with his aide Obeid Lutale in neighbouring Kenya and both were repatriated to Uganda where they were subsequently charged with treason. They denied the charges, and multiple attempts to be released on bail have been denied.

"Besigye collapsed ... he was just standing and he suddenly collapsed. After some time an ambulance came and they took him away but we don't know where he has been taken," Harold Kaija, a senior official in Besigye's party People's Front for Freedom (PFF), told Reuters.

Besigye's wife, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, said on X that he had been taken to hospital in Kampala.

Hospitalisation

Judiciary spokesperson Ereemye Mawanda said he was unable to comment because he did not have information on the incident yet.

In February, Besigye was briefly hospitalised after he went on a hunger strike protesting his detention, and in April his wife, Winnie Byanyima, told rights groups that "his health is not that good."

Besigye has been pressing the government to restore his defence team after the lead attorney, Martha Karua, a Kenyan national, was declared persona non grata while another senior lawyer on the team, Erias Lukwago, was detained and charged with misprision of treason. He remains in custody.