A court in Uganda on Wednesday reportedly ordered that a retired gay British man arrested on charges of “trafficking obscene publications” should be immediately deported.
The court dropped the original charge against 65 year old Bernard Randall, but ordered he be escorted home to pack his belongings and taken to the airport to leave.
An official from the prosecutor’s office said he was being expelled because he had “kept on corrupting Uganda’s youth” and failed to renew his visa.
“The court orders immediate deportation within 12 hours,” judge Hellen Ajio told the court, bringing an end to a high profile case that has highlighted the issue of gay rights in the fiercely anti-homosexual African nation.
Randall’s lawyer, John Francis Onyango, had asked that his client be given five days in which to leave the country, but said the decision would not be appealed.
“We are glad that the state did, indeed, drop them, because our position has been that there is no adequate evidence to charge Bernard Randall,” Onyango said.
“We are concerned about his deportation on flimsy grounds… but we are not making an appeal because if doesn’t serve much purpose,” he added.
Meanwhile Randall has reportedly dismissed the allegations against him as “lies”.
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