Veteran Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has been charged with treason in a civilian court after his controversial case was transferred from a military tribunal. Treason is a capital offence in Uganda and if found guilty the 68-year-old cold be sentenced to death.

A Ugandan court charged opposition leader Kizza Besigye with treason over an alleged plot to end President Yoweri Museveni’s four-decade rule of the East African nation.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A prominent opposition figure facing military trial in Uganda will be charged before a civilian court instead, an official said Monday, as authorities faced mounting pressure to free him.

Besigye, a qualified physician who retired from Uganda’s military at the rank of colonel, is a former president of the Forum for Democratic Change party, for many years Uganda’s most prominent opposition group. He is a fierce critic of Museveni, for whom he once served as a military assistant and personal doctor.

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been charged with treason, in an escalation of legal troubles stemming from allegations he plotted to remove the country’s long-time leader by force