In a previous story on The Rustin Times, we reported on 20 LGBTQ+ people who were arrested by the Ugandan Police Force in March. The Police Force invaded the shelter of these LGBTQ+ people outside Kampala on the counts of “violating social distancing rules” that banned gatherings of over 10 people.
The LGBTQ+ people arrested in March include 14 gay men, 2 bisexual men, and 4 transgender women. According to a police statement, they were charged with doing “negligent act likely to spread infection of disease” contrary to Section 171 of the Penal Code Act. Since then, advocates have demanded their release claiming homophobia as a reason for their arrest and that their arrest is a violation of their human rights. Many of the LGBTQ+ persons arrested were HIV positive, but Uganda’s coronavirus lockdown and a ban on prison visits made it impossible to meet the detainees or deliver medication to them.
On the eighteenth of May, however, the ruling by the magistrate’s court said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had withdrawn the charge against the group arrested, and ordered that they are released from prison, OpenlyNews Reports.
Patricia Kimera, a lawyer from the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) who is representing the group, spoke to Openly News about the court injunction. Patricia said, “It is the right decision for the DPP to withdraw the charges since it was a targeted arrest with trumped-up charges”
The lead counsel in the case Dr. Adrian Jjuuko says (in a public statement released by Sexual Minorities Uganda – SMUG) “It has been a struggle. We had to go to court to get an order just to get access to them. Questions remain. Charges against the 19 have been withdrawn, but they have been in prison for 49 days. What does this mean for justice? The charges shouldn’t have been imposed in the first place. This is not the end of the matter. We will follow up on why the charges were imposed.”
“The news of the arrests shocked me,” SMUG’s Administration Officer Diane Sydney Bakuraira said. “I wondered why innocent people seeking a safe space would be arrested. It is devastating to see an already vulnerable community put in harm’s way by law enforcement officers who are supposed to be protecting them. We serve a living God, and today he came through again with justice for our 19 community members. When we heard of their arrest, we faced a lot of challenges in getting accessing them to find out how they were doing. Hearing that court has dropped charges against our comrades is a victory, though my question remains: why were they arrested in the first place?”
