Uganda: Charges Dismissed Against 67 People

In Uganda, TrialWatch helped secure the dismissal of charges against 67 people following a raid on an LGBTQ+-friendly bar. From 2019 to 2022, TrialWatch sent monitors to observe the proceedings, and reported on the fact that the process was clearly motivated by homophobia as well as exposing serious fair trial violations in a report.

Among other things, the defendants were denied access to key evidence and subject to undue delays because of prosecutorial misconduct, prolonging the cases so that the defendants (who were on bail) had the charges hanging over them for several years.

Following the release of TrialWatch’s report, courts in three of the cases, covering more than 30 defendants, dismissed the charges on the basis of the prosecution’s conduct.