Uganda begins arresting men for ‘aggravated homosexuality’, a crime punishable by death
Defense attorney challenges new Anti-Homosexuality Law as unconstitutional
(Luke Dray photo courtesy of CNN/Getty Images)
A 20-year-old Ugandan is among the first targets of the harshest provision of the country’s new Anti-Homosexuality Act, which calls for executing people who engage in “aggravated homosexuality”.
That new crime includes gay sex with a person with disabilities, a minor or an elderly person. The young man was charged on Aug. 18 with engaging in gay sex with a 41-year-old man with a disability, Jacqueline Okui, spokesperson for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, told CNN.
Another man was charged with “aggravated homosexuality” last month in Jinja district for allegedly performing “a sexual act with a child aged 12 of the same sex,” according to Okui.
Two men in Uganda are facing separate charges of “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense punishable by death under the country’s controversial new anti-gay law.
A 20-year-old man in the district of Soroti in eastern Uganda was charged on August 18 after he allegedly, “performed unlawful sexual intercourse with one [man] aged 41 with a disability,” Jacqueline Okui, spokesperson for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions told CNN.
The act, signed into law in May, also outlaws gay marriage in Uganda and it punishes same-sex acts with life imprisonment.
It has been decades since Uganda last carried out an execution, but its longtime President Yoweri Museveni had threatened in 2018 to resume state assent for capital punishment.
Attorney Justine Balya, who is representing the 20-year-old man, told CNN that the penalties associated with the law were entirely out of proportion.
“Of course the fact that the law is being enforced in this way is entirely unconstitutional because it seeks to criminalize what is often consensual conduct between adults,” she said.
She said that cases of this kind could go to trial after a long delay and she expects her client to be in pre-trial remand for an extended period.
Balya said they are representing several people arrested for lesser offenses under the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The man arrested in Soroti is the second person to be charged with the capital offense in Uganda since the law passed in May.
Another man was charged with “aggravated homosexuality” last month in Jinja district in eastern Uganda for allegedly performing “a sexual act with a child aged 12 of the same sex,” according to Okui.
Both men are under remand and will appear in court in September.
