LAGOS, Nigeria — Two men in Uganda are the first to be charged with "aggravated homosexuality," which carries the death penalty under a new anti-gay law passed in May. Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, but the new law has been condemned as one of the most extreme such laws in the world.
In the more recent and widely reported case, a 20-year-old man was arrested Aug. 18 and charged with "aggravated homosexuality," defined as same-sex relations with someone who's HIV-positive, a child, an elderly person or disabled person. The defendant is accused of having relations with a disabled 41-year-old man, according to the spokesperson for Uganda's director of prosecutions. The defendant's lawyer said it could be six months before the man appears in court again.
