Kampala, Uganda | URN | The prosecution has today August 24th, tendered several videos and audios from various meetings outside Uganda in which jailed opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye was allegedly plotting with others to overthrow the government of Uganda.
The clips were on Monday played before the Criminal Division Judge Emmanuel Baguma in the case in which Dr Besigye who is being tried in absentia, is jointly charged with his aide Obeid Lutale and UPDF Captain Denis Oola on treason charges.
The videos, some of which are 17 minutes long, 10 minutes, another 5 minutes and 33 seconds, were all reportedly recorded in Geneva, Switzerland, by a private security investigator, Andrew Wilson aka Orlando.
Today has been Andrew Wilson’s third day in court as he continues to testify on how he was reportedly approached by a Ugandan based in Switzerland, Joel Wakayima, to train a group of about 60 opposition Ugandans, including retired Colonel Dr Besigye paramilitary skills and then afterwards supply them with weapons such as grenades, firearms and ricin poison so as to overthrow the Yoweri Kaguta Museveni government.
As part of his testimony, Wilson said he recorded both audio and video clips of all the meetings they had in Nairobi, Athens in Greece and Geneva Switzerland.
So today, he first showed Court 11 gadgets he covertly used to record these meetings. These gadgets included a camera fitted in a wall socket charger, a camera in a USB charger, an audio surveillance device put on a steel radiator, a magnetic audio recorder, a WiFi camera, an audio listening device which the witness hid in a metallic flowerpot during the meetings, and a power bank with a dotted-like camera in it, and a necklace with a camera on it among other devices.
Wilson says worked with Birungi
Wilson said when he came to Uganda, he wrote reports from the said meetings and handed them to former Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence Commander James Birungi for further management. Birungi has spent almost a year in detention on charges related to fabricating intelligence reports on terrorism in Uganda.
But, witness Wilson noted that in his report to Birungi, he also shared screenshots of conversations on a Redmi phone he had specifically bought to communicate with Besigye and the Wakayima group. He said he was afraid of the contents being discussed by Besigye and Wakayima as they had talks related to terrorism and treason against the government.
Wilson noted that he never wanted the information intercepted at any airport, and as such, he bought a hard drive and put all his recordings and any other useful information there. This hard drive has also been shown to Court .
The meetings recorded include alleged meetings held on January 28th 2024 at Athens International Airport and on June 14th 2024. He said that he had also recorded the September 29th 2024 meeting in Athens while wearing a covert camera on his waistcoat and a sports watch.
The court has heard that Wilson also had a necklace which had a camera on it, and it has also been shown to the court as evidence.
He also had a black-coloured flash drive with a camera on it, and it allegedly recorded previous Zoom meetings and physical meetings, among others before he handed it over together with a Samsung and Redmi phone to the Ugandan CID investigators. Andrew Wislon has further told Judge Baguma that another alleged recording of November 16th, 2024, when Besigye was arrested in Nairobi, was never saved by the Kenyan police, which took the gadgets he was using before he ran away from the arrest.
It was Wilson’s testimony that even the alleged conversations in which Besigye was reportedly using his United States of America phone number to try and secure release for Wakayima who had been arrested in Switzerland over immigration-related issues were also captured in his evidence. The videos and recordings from all this have been played in Court. But one could hardly hear anything. The sound was of extremely bad quality, noisy and too loud.
Some people who were in Court like Dr Lulume Bayiga were covering their ears due to the echo and noise from both audios and videos. Some actually got out from the proceedings one by one, saying the evidence was not sufficient to implicate Besigye and his co accused.
They said that whereas the videos are there and people are seen in a meeting, one can hardly understand what was actually being talked about. It is difficult to understand whether it was a discussion on treason or something else in the absence of clearer audio. Dr Besigye is seen on video wearing a dark grey-like jacket in one of the recordings together with someone identified as Wakayima by the witness.
Story of fake money
There is also money seen in the meeting which Wilson alleges was genuine money which they wanted to remove its serial numbers such that it becomes counterfeit or fake money and later is brought to Uganda to destabilise its economy. He does not explain how genuine money can destabilise the economy by just removing its serial.
Also in that meeting was one Frank Kihehere, whose face is not seen, according to Wlison.
Wilson had earlier told Court that Kihehere has been threatening him almost every week, saying that his company will collapse and that he keeps sending him (Andrew) pictures of himself when he is testifying in court, and he gets tormented on social media platforms.
According to Wilson, these pictures were taken by Besigye’s wife, engineer Winnie Byanyima because he was keen and straight looking into her phone camera when she took them last session. Apart from high-profile politicians, the media and other people are not allowed to enter with phones and handbags in the Besigye case.
Audios of over two hours were also played, but the court couldn’t finish listening to them. Instead, the matter has been adjourned to Tuesday August 25th 2026 for further prosecution hearings.
Andrew Wilson was being led by Chief State Attorney Richard Birivumbuka together with Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Thomas Jatiko.
On the other hand, Captain Denis Oola who is accused number three on the file is represented by state hired lawyers namely; Sylvia Namawejje Ebitu, Julius Sserwambala and Sarah Awero.
Hajji Lutale remains without legal representation as Besigye is kept in prison on medication despite having vowed never to come back for this trial where he accuses the judge of actual bias and incompetency. Besigye, Lutale and Captain Oola are jointly charged with treason over allegations that they plotted to overthrow the government.
According to the prosecution, the trio held meetings in Uganda, Kenya, Greece and Switzerland to solicit funding, acquire weapons and organise paramilitary activities. Prosecutors further allege that Besigye met an alleged Kurdish intelligence operative identified as Andrew Wilson and received US$5,000 to facilitate the transportation of 36 Ugandans to Kisumu, Kenya, for military training, although the recruits were allegedly intercepted and deported before the training commenced.
The State also alleges that Besigye sought to acquire surface-to-air missiles, ricin poison and counterfeit currency, and planned to use drone technology to assassinate President Yoweri Museveni. The prosecution says it intends to rely on witness testimony, audio and video recordings, social media communications, immigration records and telephone data as evidence during the trial.
