Man held for 350 days under anti-gay laws released

A Ugandan man held in pre-trial detention for nearly a year under anti-homosexuality laws that have drawn international condemnation has been released on bail, a rights group representing him said, according to a report in The East African. Campaigners say Uganda's LGBTQ community has faced increasing rights abuses, including home evictions and torture, after the country passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) last year. Michael Opolot (21) was arrested on 15 August last year. He was initially charged with aggravated homosexuality and remanded in custody by a court in Soroti, in north-eastern Uganda. The charge was later changed to a lesser one, but he was repeatedly denied bail. ‘After 350 days on remand, the Soroti Chief Magistrate's Court finally granted (Opolot) ... cash bail,’ Chapter Four Uganda, a human rights group representing him, posted on X. ‘This long pre-trial detention is unconscionable.’ In a statement this month, Convening for Equality (CFE), a coalition of LGBTQ rights groups, said Opolot had been subjected to forced anal examinations during his detention. The AHA introduced the death penalty for so-called aggravated homosexuality, described as having same-sex relations with a vulnerable person or if the act results in the transmission of a terminal disease such as HIV, among other categories. Those convicted of same-sex intercourse receive life imprisonment, the same sentence Opolot faced after the charge against him was amended to unnatural sex, covered by an old anti-sodomy law introduced in Uganda during British colonial rule. A report by the coalition of rights groups in June said that at least 1 000 violations of LGBTQ rights had been recorded in the previous nine months as the new legislation fuelled a surge in anti-gay hostility.