Petitioners appeal over Uganda anti-gay law

KAMPALA - A group including rights activists and a politician filed an appeal to Uganda's Supreme Court on Thursday, the latest step in an ongoing legal challenge to a ruling upholding controversial anti-gay legislation adopted last year, their lawyer said.

In April, the Constitutional Court threw out a challenge to the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which is considered one of the harshest such laws in the world.

It imposes penalties of up to life in prison for consensual same-sex relations and contains provisions that make "aggravated homosexuality" an offence punishable by death.

The legislation, and the April court ruling, have been widely condemned by rights groups as well as by Western powers including the United States.

The group had filed a formal notice of appeal against the court's decision in mid-April, contesting its determination that the law did not violate Uganda's constitution.

"The Constitutional Appeal challenging the Ugandan Constitutional Court's decision to uphold vast sections of the Anti-Homosexuality Act has been filed at the Supreme Court today," lawyer Nicholas Opiyo said on X on Thursday.

"We will wait for the Supreme Court's directions and are optimistic for an expedited hearing of the case."

Opiyo told AFP that Thursday's filing was the latest step in the appeal process, following the lodging of a formal notice of appeal three months earlier.

"It is a process to complete the appeal and set it for the court to start the next step", he said.

The 22 petitioners include MP Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a member of President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement, and prominent human rights defender Frank Mugisha.

The United States, which restricted visas for Ugandan officials and removed Kampala from a key trade pact after the law was adopted last year, warned after the 3 April ruling that it would take "appropriate measures".

Museveni's government has rejected concerns over the law, accusing the West of trying to pressure Africa into accepting homosexuality.

And the measures have enjoyed broad support in the conservative, predominantly Christian country.

Last August, a 20-year-old man became the first Ugandan to be charged with "aggravated homosexuality" under the contested law.

The World Bank announced the same month that it was suspending new loans to Uganda over the law.

There has been an anti-gay crackdown across Africa, often encouraged by conservative Muslims and Christians.

On Thursday, the government of junta-led Burkina Faso adopted a plan to ban homosexuality, becoming the latest African nation to do so despite international condemnation.

Homosexuality is illegal in around 30 African countries, and some of them like Ghana and Uganda have recently toughened anti-gay laws.