{"id":23229,"date":"2026-02-03T07:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/case-against-ugandan-man-charged-with-aggravated-homosexuality-dropped\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:04","slug":"case-against-ugandan-man-charged-with-aggravated-homosexuality-dropped","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/case-against-ugandan-man-charged-with-aggravated-homosexuality-dropped\/","title":{"rendered":"Case against Ugandan man charged with &#8220;aggravated homosexuality&#8221; dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A Ugandan court on Monday dropped a case against the first man in the country to be charged with &#8220;aggravated homosexuality&#8221;, which carries the death penalty under an anti-gay law, his lawyer told Reuters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The East African country enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023, defying pressure from Western governments as well as local and international rights groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Described as one of the world&#8217;s harshest laws targeting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Community, it carries a sentence of life in prison for same sex intercourse and imposes the death penalty in cases deemed &#8220;aggravated&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The man was accused of &#8220;unlawful sexual intercourse&#8221; with a 41-year-old man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">During proceedings which lasted more than two years, prosecutors amended the indictment and charged the man with having &#8220;carnal knowledge against the order of nature,&#8221; an offence under Uganda&#8217;s penal code that carries life imprisonment, Mawadri said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">On Monday &#8220;the magistrate discontinued the case upon finding that the accused is of unsound mind after a long detention on remand&#8221;, Mawadri told Reuters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Mawadri said the ruling was delivered orally in court and a written version would be available at a later date.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A Spokesperson for Uganda&#8217;s judiciary had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Uganda&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Unite States imposed visa restrictions on some Ugandan officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16035,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23229","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Charges on aggravated homosexuality","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26261,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23229\/revisions\/26261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}