Hillary Nsambu
23 September 2007
Kampala — THE Attorney General on Friday asked the High Court to dismiss a case in which two women said they were tortured by the Police and the LCI chairman of Kireka on allegations that they were lesbians.
Margaret Nabakooza, the State Attorney, said the complainants had failed to prove their case because the Police did not arrest them.
She said John Lubega, LCI chairman, arrested one of the complainants, Yvonne Oyoo, from a bar.
Oyoo, a Kenyan student at Makerere University and Victor Juliet Mukasa, a Ugandan human rights activist, alleged that Lubega and the Police tortured and molested them.
They argued that the Police treated them in a degrading manner after arresting them on allegations that they were lesbians.
Earlier, Lubega had told court that he found the complainants kissing each other in a bar and arrested them.
He, however, denied molesting Oyoo during the arrest, adding that his intervention rescued them (the complainants) from being lynched.
Lubega said he tried to restrain the irate crowd that was about to attack the duo.
"After arresting Oyoo, I handed her to the Kireka Police post," Lubega said.
He also denied allegations that he arrested the duo from Mukasa's house.
The head of the High Court Civil Division, Justice Stella Amoko, said she would deliver her judgement in a month.
The former West Buganda Anglican bishop, Christopher Sennyonjo, was among those who attended court. "They (lesbians) have rights as human beings," he told The New Vision.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
