Profile: Kizza Besigye

Kizza Besigye, the Ugandan opposition leader currently in jail awaiting trial for treason, is the most serious political threat that President Yoweri Museveni has faced in his 20 years in power.

That is partly because this is a personal relationship gone sour. Dr Besigye, 49, was Mr Museveni's personal physician during the guerrilla war that brought him to power. He had helped found Mr Museveni's Uganda Patriotic Movement and was made a minister at the age of 29, becoming the government's chief ideologue.

In 1999 Dr Besigye wrote a document accusing the ruling party of being undemocratic, dishonest and corrupt. It caused an uproar and Dr Besigye - who had the rank of colonel - was threatened with a court martial.

He ran as a presidential candidate against Mr Museveni in the 2001 elections and when he lost went to court to challenge the result on the grounds of vote-rigging and electoral violence. He lost the case and fled the country a few months later.

Dr Besigye is the son of a policeman and the second child in a family of six. His parents died while he was still at school. He studied medicine at Makerere University and says he joined Mr Museveni in the bush after being imprisoned and tortured by security forces working for former president Milton Obote.

He is married to Winnie Banyima, a former MP and Uganda's first female aeronautical engineer, and has one son.