A Ugandan court denied bail for 19 LGBT community members after they were arrested for disobeying the COVID-19 lockdown measures and gathering in public. The men (between the ages of 19 – 32) were arrested last month at an LGBT shelter.
Their lawyer argues that these men are being targeted because of their sexual orientation. The LGBT community in Uganda have raised claims of human rights being violated.
On the 29th of March, 23 members of the LGBT community were arrested. During the arrest, the local mayor was caught on camera asking the arrested men who their parents were and physically assaulting one of them with a huge cane.
The men were also forced to reveal their faces to the camera. On Tuesday 28 of April an LGBT lawyer and activist, Adrian Juuko, petitioned the Uganda High Court in Kampala for emergency bail, because lower court levels were not operating because of the pandemic outbreak.
Juuko said that the court has used the pandemic as an excuse to keep the LGBT members behind bars. The men are to remain behind bars until their court hearing on the 12th of May unless the high Court approves the bail before then.
