A court in Uganda has dropped the case against the country’s first man to be charged with “aggravated sodomy”, which is punishable by death under the country’s anti-homosexuality laws.
The defendant was 20 years old at the time. arrest She was allegedly found by police around midnight on August 15, 2023, along with a 41-year-old man at the Soroti Sports Ground in eastern Uganda. Both men were arrested and taken to Soroti Central Police Station where they were charged with “illegal sexual intercourse”, a charge the 20-year-old man denied. Police claimed to have captured the two men half-naked.
Later that day, police released the 41-year-old man, claiming he was unable to consent to sex due to his “mental state.” A spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions said the man was “living with a disability”, but the 20-year-old’s lawyer told Amnesty International that police had not provided any evidence to support that claim.
Lawyers for the 20-year-old boy said police conducted an anal examination on the alleged “victim” while in custody. This practice is said to be practiced in some countries in Africa and Asia to “prove” homosexuality, even though it is based on junk science.
The 20-year-old was remanded in police custody until August 18, after which he was taken to the Soroti Chief Magistrate’s Court and remanded to prison. He was then charged with “aggravated sodomy”, beginning a legal process that lasted more than two years. Prosecutors later amended the indictment, charging him with “lust against the order of nature,” a crime punishable by life imprisonment under Uganda’s penal code.
On February 2, a magistrate stopped the case, finding that “the defendant has become mentally unstable after being detained for a long period of time on remand,” said Douglas Mawadri, the man’s lawyer. Reuters. The judgment will be delivered orally in court and a written decision will be issued at a later date.
A spokesperson for Uganda’s judiciary declined to comment when contacted by the government. Reuters.
said Ugandan LGBTQ activist Richard Rushimbo. Agence France-Presse He said the dismissal was “a huge step forward that should have been announced much earlier”, adding: “To detain someone for more than a year without trial is the worst injustice.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
