Uganda Deport British for being Gay

UGANDAN authorities are to deport a British man found in possession of a sex video as part of the country's ongoing clampdown on homosexuals that has resulted in the passing of a Draconian bill in December.

Like Nigeria, Uganda is stepping up its opposition to gay rights and in December, its parliament passed a bill that makes being gay punishable with life imprisonment. Although President Yoweri Museveni is yet to sign the bill into law, its harsh contents even proscribe prison sentences for anyone who knows of gays and refuses to report them to the authorities.

Yesterday, British pensioner Bernard Randall, 65, from Faversham in Kent, was ordered to leave Uganda within 12 hours after a court found him guilty of trafficking obscene publications. Judge Hellen Ajio, sitting at a high court in Kampala ordered that Mr Randall should be deported within 12 hours.

Mr Randall, who first appeared in court in Uganda in November, would have faced a possible two-year prison sentence if found guilty of being gay. He was charged along with his friend Albert Cheptoyek, 30, a Ugandan national with whom he shares a house.

According to Mr Cheptoyek, his friend Mr Randall is now being held in the court’s cells awaiting his deportation. Mr Randall was arrested after thieves stole a laptop from his house and still pictures from a video he recorded on it appeared in a Ugandan national tabloid newspaper.

During the trial Mr Cheptoyek denied a more serious charge of carrying out acts of gross indecency, which could see him jailed for up to seven years if found guilty. Britain's Foreign Office said it was aware of the arrest and deportation of Mr Russell and had provided the necessary consular assistance in the case.

Uganda, like Nigeria is a fiercely homophobic country and in one instance in 2011, one gay man was publicly executed by an irate mob, although the police denied he was killed over his sexuality. Human rights activists have frequently condemned President Museveni's anti-gay rhetoric and international aid agencies have threatened to withhold funding from the country as a result.