Besigye, 68, a medical doctor and longtime critic of President Yoweri Museveni, was brought to the General Court Martial under a heavily armed military escort.

Kizza Besigye is a longtime critic of strongman President Yoweri Museveni. Besigye's wife says he is being held in military jail despite not being a soldier.

Leading Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye has been arrested multiple times, pepper-sprayed, faced spurious charges of rape and treason, and once fled the country in fear of his life. Besigye ran again against his former patient in 2006 but spent most of the campaign defending himself against rape and treason charges that the High Court later found were trumped up.