Human rights lawyer and activist Eron Kiiza fled Uganda last month after he got wind of information that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) was planning to bring contempt-of-court charges against him following a string of social media posts he made about the ongoing treason trial of Dr Kizza Besigye.
According to a notice of motion filed at the High Court by the ODPP, which Bbeg Media has seen, the state asked the court to find Kiiza guilty of contempt “for violating the sub judice rule and scandalizing the court by publishing highly prejudicial and derogatory statements”.
The application accuses him of naming a state witness and of “attracting public commentary on the merits of the case” while the trial was still active.
The motion also asks the court to commit Kiiza to civil prison for a fixed punitive term or fine him, order him to “permanently delete the offending posts” and publish “a prominent, court-approved retraction and unconditional apology” on X for seven consecutive days.
Kiiza told Bbeg Media last week that he had decided to leave Uganda, alleging state persecution.
NUP’s Zedriga, lawyer Eron Kiiza “flee” Uganda amid political tension
An affidavit attached to the motion and sworn by an investigator at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), Odyek Benedict, states that Kiiza “actively utilizes his verified public social media platform X… to routinely execute a parallel trial in the court of public opinion.”
Odyek alleges that Kiiza’s posts could “directly intimidate upcoming state witnesses.”
The application was partly prompted by posts Kiiza wrote about one of the key witnessess in the Dr Besigye trial, Andrew Wilson, aka Orlando.
Kiiza’s posts questioned inconsistencies in the witness’s police statement, including the dates he gave for meetings he said took place in Geneva.
In one post, Kiiza wrote that the witness “gives two different dates for what he himself describes as the first Geneva meeting,” adding that “this is not a question of interpretation. It is arithmetic.”
The ODPP alleges that Kiiza had written to three state-appointed lawyers, Namawejje Sylvia, Awero Sarah and Sserwambala Julius, demanding they “cease from acting as State-imposed counsel” for Dr Besigye and Obeid Lutale.
In the letter, dated July 16, 2026, Kiiza argued that “the right to counsel is a shield the Constitution presses into the hand of the accused for his or her own protection” and that “a lawyer imposed upon an unwilling accused does not vindicate that right… he abolishes it.”
Kiiza is well known in legal and human rights circles. He is also a published poet and environmentalist who runs an organisation called The Environment Shield.
