KAMPALA, Feb 3 (Reuters) – A Ugandan court on Monday dropped a case against the first man in the country to be charged with “aggravated homosexuality”, which carries the death penalty under an anti-gay law, his lawyer told Reuters.
The East African country enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023, defying pressure from Western governments as well as local and international rights groups.
Described as one of the world’s harshest laws targeting the LGBT community, it carries a sentence of life in prison for same-sex intercourse and imposes the death penalty in cases deemed “aggravated”.
That categorisation includes repeat offences, gay sex that transmits terminal illness, or same-sex intercourse with a minor, an elderly person or a person with disabilities.
The then 20-year-old man from Soroti in northeastern Uganda spent nearly a year on remand after he was detained in August 2023 and charged with aggravated homosexuality, his lawyer Douglas Mawadri told Reuters on Tuesday.
The man was accused of “unlawful sexual intercourse” with a 41-year-old man.
During proceedings which lasted more than two years, prosecutors amended the indictment and charged the man with having “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” an offence under Uganda’s penal code that carries life imprisonment, Mawadri said.
On Monday “the magistrate discontinued the case upon finding that the accused is of unsound mind after a long detention on remand”, Mawadri told Reuters.
Mawadri said the ruling was delivered orally in court and a written version would be available at a later date.
A spokesperson for Uganda’s judiciary had no immediate comment.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023 drew widespread condemnation an threats of sanctions, and led the World Bank to suspend new funding to Uganda for nearly two years. The U.S. imposed visa restrictions on some Ugandan officials.
(Editing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Michael Perry)
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