Uganda charges opposition lawyer Erias Lukwago with treason-related offence

A Kampala magistrate’s court on June 17 charged opposition lawyer Erias Lukwago with misprision of treason, turning one of Uganda’s best-known defense advocates into the latest high-profile target of the security state. Lukwago, the former Kampala mayor and president of the People’s Front for Freedom, had been seized from his Wakaliga home on June 15; he denied the charge and was remanded in custody.

Prosecutors say the offence, also described as complicity in treason, means Lukwago allegedly knew about plans for an unlawful change of government and failed to report them to lawful authorities. The charge lands squarely on a lawyer who is the lead counsel for Kizza Besigye in his treason trial and who also represents Besigye in a related case against Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba over alleged social-media threats.

The confrontation has widened beyond one courtroom. Kainerugaba, Uganda’s military chief and the son of President Yoweri Museveni, publicly boasted that he would inflict “hurt and pain” on Lukwago after the arrest, a message opposition lawyers say signals that the state is willing to reach past politicians and into the legal teams that defend them. That kind of pressure can chill representation, narrow due-process protections and deter lawyers from taking politically sensitive cases.

The pressure around Lukwago is inseparable from Besigye’s own case. Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate and longtime Museveni critic, was abducted in Nairobi on November 16, 2024 and later reappeared in Uganda, where he has remained in detention as prosecutors pursue treason-related allegations tied to meetings they say took place in Geneva, Athens and Nairobi between October 2023 and November 2024. Lukwago’s arrest therefore lands as part of a broader campaign around Besigye’s defense, not an isolated legal move.

Opposition parties and the Uganda Law Society condemned the arrest, arguing that it reflected shrinking civic space and state lawlessness, while opposition MPs pressed for an urgent recall of Parliament from recess to debate the detention and the conduct of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces. For Uganda’s critics, the case has become a test of whether the courts can still shield dissenting voices when the country’s military leadership is openly intervening in politics and legal defense.