A day before Museveni took the presidential oath last week,
Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party said they had sworn
Besigye in as Uganda's president.
Opposition leader Kizza Besigye speaks during a news conference at his
home at the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, February 21, 2016.
Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye,
who had been taken to a court in the country's remote northeast to face
a charge of treason, was on Monday transferred back to a prison in the
capital Kampala, his lawyer said.
Besigye lost to veteran leader Yoweri Museveni
in Uganda's Feb. 18 presidential election. He was charged with treason
late on Friday for unlawfully declaring himself the winner of the poll
and being sworn in as president in a mock ceremony, the charge sheet
seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
Besigye has
rejected the poll's results, alleging widespread vote rigging, a biased
electoral commission, intimidation by security services and other
irregularities which he said made the election a sham.
The
election was also widely criticised by independent monitors including
those from the European Union who said it was carried out in an
intimidating atmosphere orchestrated by state actors.
Since
the election, sporadic clashes have occurred between security forces
and opposition supporters seeking to protest what they say is Museveni's
fraudulent victory.
Besigye's lawyer, Moses
Byamugisha told Reuters Besigye had been transferred to Luzira prison in
Kampala, Uganda's only maximum security prison located on the shores of
Lake Victoria.
"Next will be to apply for bail....by Thursday we should have made an application for bail to the high court," Byamugisha said.
A
day before Museveni took the presidential oath last week, Besigye's
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party said they had sworn Besigye in
as Uganda's president.
A video appearing to show the ceremony was widely circulated on social media.
The
retired army colonel and physician was arrested on Wednesday as he
addressed a rally in downtown Kampala and flown to a prison in the
remote and isolated Karamoja region, near the border with Kenya.
Critics quickly likened the region to South Africa's Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was once incarcerated.
Byamugisha said the treason charges were "laughable" and that "the intention of government is not to win this case in court but to just get Besigye out of circulation."
Police
on Monday said they had also summoned some FDC officials who appeared
in Besigye's apparent mock swearing-in video for questioning on why they
allegedly participated in an unlawful activity.
Museveni,
71, is credited with restoring order to the east African country after
years of chaos but critics accuse him of growing increasingly
authoritarian, clamping down on dissent and failing to tackle
corruption.
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