Uganda: Man Charged with Aggravated Homosexuality Released on Bail After a Year

Michael Opolot, one of the first men to face the death penalty under Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), has been released on bail after a year awaiting trial.

Opolot, 21, was arrested in August 2023 for reportedly having sex with a 41-year-old man in the eastern city of Soroti.

He was charged with “aggravated homosexuality” because the other man was disabled, a crime punishable by death under the AHA. It’s been claimed that he was forced to undergo invasive anal examinations while under arrest. 

The charge was later reduced to committing “unnatural offences,” a crime under Uganda’s colonial-era ban on homosexuality, which remains in force. Despite the lesser charge, the court repeatedly refused to grant him bail, with Opolot spending 350 days behind bars.

On 30 July, LGBTIQ+ rights group Chapter Four Uganda confirmed that the Soroti Chief Magistrate Court had finally released Opolot on bail of one million Uganda shillings in cash ($270 / R5,000).

“We thank partners who worked with us in court to demand his release,” said the organisation on X, adding that “this long pretrial detention is unconscionable.”

Since the Anti-Homosexuality Act was enacted in May 2023, there have been hundreds of reported human rights violations targeting LGBTIQ+ people, including arrests, evictions, forced anal examinations, torture, and violations of the right to equality and freedom from discrimination.

The law imposes life imprisonment for engaging in homosexual acts and the death penalty for “aggravated” homosexuality. It also outlaws the “promotion of homosexuality,” putting human rights defenders advocating for LGBTQ+ rights at risk of imprisonment for up to 20 years.

In July, Ugandan activists filed an appeal against a Constitutional Court ruling in April that found the law constitutionally valid.

Human Rights Watch has described the Anti-Homosexuality Act as “one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT laws.”

Tragically, the passage of the law has fuelled anti-LGBTQ sentiment on the continent, inspiring the introduction of similar legislation in several other African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and the DRC, further oppressing sexual and gender minorities.