GAY ACTIVISTS SUE MINISTER OVER WORKSHOP RAID

Gay activists in Uganda have a filed a lawsuit against a cabinet minister who they say illegally raided and shut down a LGBT rights workshop last month.

Jacqueline Kasha Nabagesera, Frank Mugisha, Julian Pepe Onziema and Geoffrey Ogwaro have filed the suit against Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo in the High Court in Kampala.

They claim that by closing down the event Lokodo violated their freedom of assembly which is guaranteed under the Ugandan constitution.

On the 14th of February, Lokodo, accompanied by a police escort, appeared at the workshop hosted by Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) at a hotel in the town of Entebbe.

He declared the gathering illegal and threatened to arrest Nabagasera after she challenged his order to disband the meeting.

Human Rights Watch described the incident as “just the latest step in a general decline in civil liberties in Uganda, where those who express divergent viewpoints are increasingly silenced – in clear violation of the law”.

According to the activists, the suit will be heard by the court on June 25.