Ugandan authorities had charged a man with aggravated homosexuality, which carries a possible death penalty, in the first use of the charge since the enactment in May of an anti-gay law that has been condemned by critics as draconian.
Global human rights body, the Amnesty International has asked Uganda’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to urgently drop charges of “aggravated homosexuality” against a 20-year-old man charged on 18 August 2023.
Ugandan authorities had charged a man with aggravated homosexuality, which carries a possible death penalty, in the first use of the charge since the enactment in May of an anti-gay law that has been condemned by critics as draconian.
The law has widespread support in Uganda but has drawn pressure from abroad on Ugandan officials to repeal the measure. The World Bank earlier this month announced a decision not to consider new loans to Uganda because of the law, drawing an angry response from President Yoweri Museveni.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa in a statement on Wednesday said; “It is deeply disturbing that the Ugandan authorities are prosecuting people based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Discrimination and persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the country must be halted.”
According to the report on its website, the lawyers of the accused told Amnesty International that Ugandan police officers arrested the 20-year-old alongside another individual, aged 41, at Soroti Sports Ground in Soroti, eastern Uganda, on 15 August 2023. They were arrested around midnight and taken to Soroti Central Police Station on allegations of engaging in sexual relations with a person of the same sex, an allegation that the accused person denied.
The lawyers reported that the police officers told them that they caught the two men half-naked.
“Charging this individual with an offence that carries the death penalty based solely on his perceived sexual orientation is a flagrant violation of international law. Uganda must not only repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act but also ensure accountability for the ongoing violations against the LGBTI community in the country,” said Tigere Chagutah.
Charging this individual with an offence that carries the death penalty based solely on his perceived sexual orientation is a flagrant violation of international law.