Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye remains hospitalised in critical condition after collapsing during a court hearing, his wife saying that he is conscious but extremely weak and unable to speak or write.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS and Besigye’s wife, spoke to reporters outside Mulago Hospital in Kampala on Monday, describing the distressing state she found her husband in.

“He looks very weak. He remained asleep for a long time. When he could open his eyes, he still cannot talk. He is not able to write. I tried to ask him to write a note to me. But his hands are not stable,” she said.

Besigye, 70, was admitted to an intensive care unit in Kampala after collapsing on July 30 during a court session in which he was on trial for treason.

He collapsed moments after objecting to the court’s decision to appoint lawyers to represent him.

His lead defence lawyer Erik Lukwago was arrested, while former Kenyan justice minister Martha Karua, also a member of his legal team, was barred from entering Uganda.

Byanyima said there was a small sign of progress on Monday, with Besigye able to take soup after intravenous feeding lines that had been sustaining him were removed.

“So today, there was a sense of progress,” she said.

She demanded that her husband’s rights to life, proper medical care, and a fair trial be respected, saying those rights were being ignored.

“I’m not asking for favours. I’m not asking anyone to bend the law. I’m simply asking that the Constitution of Uganda is respected and is applied, fairly and equally to Dr Kizza Besigye,” she said.

Besigye has been in detention since late 2024, when he was kidnapped in Kenya and smuggled back to Uganda.

A longtime rival of President Yoweri Museveni, the two were once allied during Uganda’s insurgency in the 1980s, with Besigye serving as Museveni’s personal doctor, he later broke ranks and ran for the presidency multiple times, consistently facing severe repression in his attempts to challenge the long-serving leader.