Overview
- An oral ruling on Monday discontinued the landmark case after the court determined the accused was of unsound mind, according to his lawyer.
- The defendant, then 20 and from Soroti, was arrested in August 2023 and spent nearly a year on remand after being accused of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 41-year-old man.
- Prosecutors later amended the indictment to the penal-code offence of having carnal knowledge against the order of nature, which carries a potential life sentence.
- Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act criminalises same-sex intercourse with life imprisonment and creates an aggravated category that can carry the death penalty for specified circumstances.
- The law drew widespread condemnation and consequences that included the World Bank halting new funding to Uganda and U.S. visa restrictions on some officials.