His deportation comes at the time when Parliament has just passed the Anti Homosexuality Bill into an Act. The Act, criminalizing, outlawing and providing harsh jail terms for same sex relationships in the country is now awaiting presidential assent to become operational.
Entebbe Chief Magistrates Court has today ordered for the deportation of a British national Bernard Randell to United Kingdom over involvement in homosexual activities.
Randell, a retired British bank analyst once faced charges of committing an act of gross indecency and trafficking obscene material in Uganda. The DPP however dropped the charges.
But Court today heard that Randell had continued to engage in activities that corrupt public morals. He was continuously corrupting Ugandan youth yet still had not renewed his visa to extend his stay in Uganda, State Prosecutor Ivan Kyazze told court.
“Since prosecution proved to court that the accused person illegally stayed in Uganda after his Visa expired in November last year, it was against the constitution of Uganda and Immigration Act for a foreigner to continue staying in the country without permission, Grade One Magistrate Hellen Ajio ruled.
She further reasoned that although the defense counsel, John Francis Onyango told court that accused had not renewed his passport and Visa because police had retained them, prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that by the time police retained his property the Visa was already expired.
“Uganda has sovereign authority to deport a foreigner violating the Laws of the country. Uganda is a God Fearing country and is against homosexuality. Court hereby orders for deportation of Randell within 12 hours after reading out this judgment,” She added
The Magistrate told court that the charges leveled against the Albert Cheptoyek alias Model who was co-accused with Randell still stand and ordered the state attorney to amend the charge sheet.
On September 25th, 2013 at Katabi zone in Entebbe municipality, Randell and Cheptoyek were arrested by police after the duo was found in possession of recorded sodomy video materials.
His deportation comes at the time when Parliament has just passed the Anti Homosexuality Bill into an Act. The Act, criminalizing, outlawing and providing harsh jail terms for same sex relationships in the country is now awaiting presidential assent to become operational.
It is already illegal in Uganda for men to engage in sexual relations with other men.
But the proposed law strengthens and clarifies the prohibition, setting a 14-year jail term for a first conviction and "imprisonment for life” for the offense of aggravated homosexuality with someone below the age of 18.
