Uganda’s president signs harsh anti-gay bill into law

Uganda’s president on Monday signed an anti-gay bill that punishes gay sex with up to life in prison, a measure likely to send Uganda’s beleaguered gay community further underground as the police try to implement it amid fevered anti-gay sentiment across the country.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the bill, which goes into effect immediately, was needed because the West is promoting homosexuality in Africa.

Museveni may have defied Western pressure to shelve the bill, four years and many versions after it was introduced, but his move — likely to galvanize support ahead of presidential elections — pleased many Ugandans who repeatedly urged him to sign the legislation.
Nigeria’s president similarly signed an anti-gay bill into law just over a month ago, sparking increased violence against gays who already were persecuted in mob attacks. Some watchdog groups warn a similar backlash of violence may occur in Uganda.

“Experience from other jurisdictions with similarly draconian laws, such as Nigeria or Russia, indicates that their implementation is often followed by a surge in violence against individuals thought to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a statement Monday. “The Ugandan government has not indicated any plans to counter such violence or to investigate potential allegations of abuse.”

The Ugandan law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults and acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
Uganda’s new anti-gay law has been condemned around the world.
In Washington, White House press secretary Jay Carney called the law “abhorrent,” urged its repeal and said the White House is reviewing its relationship with Uganda.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that the law would institutionalize discrimination and could encourage harassment and violence against gays.
report has it that six people have already been arrested over alleged homosexual offences and more than a dozen have fled Uganda since lawmakers passed the bill in December, according to a prominent Ugandan gay activist, Pepe Julian Onziema.

The president said “We Africans never seek to impose our view on others. If only they could let us alone,” Museveni said. “We have been disappointed for a long time by the conduct of the West. There is now an attempt at social imperialism.”
Museveni accused “arrogant and careless Western groups” of trying to recruit Ugandan children into homosexuality, but he did not name these purported groups.

Museveni said he believes Western homosexuals have targeted poor Ugandans who then “prostitute” themselves for the money, an allegation repeated by the bill’s Ugandan defenders. Museveni did not cite any examples of people he called “mercenary homosexuals.”
The anti-gay measure was introduced in 2009 by a lawmaker with the ruling party who said the law was necessary to deter Western homosexuals from “recruiting” Ugandan children.
That legislator, David Bahati, said Monday that the bill’s enactment is “a triumph of our sovereignty, a victory for the people of Uganda, the children of Uganda.”

Several Ugandan gays say Bahati and other political leaders were influenced by conservative U.S. evangelicals who wanted to spread their anti-gay agenda in Africa.
Homosexuality is criminalized in many African countries.

President Goodluck Jonathan to adress the nation by 9pm

President Goodluck Jonathan will tonight make a broadcast to the nation by 9 pm on Nigeria’s centenary.
According to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the broadcast will be relayed on the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Voice of Nigeria (VON).
“All other television and radio stations in the country are urged to hook-up to NTA and FRCN to relay the broadcast to their viewers and listeners.” It stated

Adebolajo, 29, gets whole-life jail term and Adebowale, 22, gets 45 years for killing a British Soldier

Sentencing: Murderers Michael Adebolajo, who described himself as a ‘soldier of Allah’, attempted to decapitate Drummer Rigby while Michael Adebowale hacked at his body in the most appalling crime

Michael Adebolajo, 29, was given a whole-life term, while Michael Adebowale, 22, was jailed for life with a minimum of 45 years – meaning he could be back on the streets by the age of 67.
Violence broke out in the Old Bailey dock this afternoon after Lee Rigby’s murderers began hurling abuse at the judge and fighting with prison guards during their sentencing.
In extraordinary scenes, the two Muslim extremists yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘You (Britain) and America will never be safe’ during their sentencing at the court in Central London.
The British-born extremists mowed down Fusilier Rigby in a car before hacking him to death in the street in
front of horrified onlookers near Woolwich Barracks in south-east London in May last year.
They both claimed that they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and were motivated by the plight of Muslims abroad to carry out the killing, and have shown no remorse.
After sentencing began, the two men shouted at Mr Justice Sweeney in protest at his remarks and were pinned to the ground by several security guards and taken back to the cells.
The judge was forced to sentence the men in their absence after they were bundled out of the courtroom following their violent outburst.

Brave life lost: Lee Rigby was walking innocently along a Woolwich road towards his barracks when he was run down and butchered

The killers had to be pinned to the ground by nine security guards and Rigby’s family began sobbing as they watched the incident in horror, being handed tissues by court staff.
The relatives were forced to get up from their seats, cowering away from the violence which was happening just feet away, according to reporters in court.
Adebolajo shouted Allahu Akbhar, and Adebowale called out ‘that’s a lie’ and ‘it’s not a betrayal of Islam’ as the judge told them they had been radicalised.
The prisoners were dragged down to the cells – one head first – and could be heard banging on the ceilings below after being taken down as the judge condemned their ‘barbaric’ murder.
The judge said the pair’s behaviour was ‘sickening and pitiless’, and that Adebolajo had no hope of rehabilitation.
‘Your sickening and pitiless conduct was in stark contrast to the compassion and bravery shown by the various women at the scene who tended to Lee Rigby’s body and challenged what you had done and said.’
The struggle in the dock was triggered when the killers, both wearing Islamic robes, reacted angrily to comments that Mr Justice Sweeney made about their extremist beliefs.
He told them: ‘You each converted to Islam some years ago. Thereafter you were radicalised and each became an extremist, espousing views which, as has been said elsewhere, are a betrayal of Islam.’
Adebowale protested that this was a lie, ranting about America and Britain, and his accomplice joined in, screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and hurling abuse at the prison guards who grappled him to the ground.
Both men were grabbed around the face as guards struggled to control them, and taken down to the cells. The soldier’s family were visibly distressed, and one relative needed medical treatment.
The judge made sure that the family were okay before starting his sentencing remarks again. He said that the murder also betrayed ‘the peaceful Muslim communities who give so much to our country’.
The judge said the men had carried out the killing to show ‘your extremist views, to murder a soldier in public in broad daylight and to do so in a way that would generate maximum media coverage including getting yourselves killed by armed officers who were bound to arrive at the scene’.
Describing how the pair mowed Rigby down at 30-40mph, he said: ‘He had done absolutely nothing to deserve what you went on to do to him.’
Mr Justice Sweeney added: ‘It is no exaggeration to say that what the two of you did resulted in a bloodbath.’ Adebolajo tried to behead the soldier while Adebowale stabbed him in the chest
‘You both gloried in what you had done,’ the judge told the court, and said it had a ‘severe and lasting impact’ on his loved ones.

Protection: Drummer Rigby’s family have said they will ‘focus on building a future for his son Jack’, pictured here with his mother

There were also dramatic scenes outside the Old Bailey as roads near the court were closed and members of the public shouted at prison vans leaving the building.
A number of far right protesters had remained outside the court all day, with two sets of gallows, calling for the killers to face the death penalty.
Rigby’s family later said that Adebolajo and Adebowale had received the ‘right prison terms’, adding: ‘We feel satisfied that justice has been served for Lee.’
Earlier, the bereft widow of Rigby told the judge who sentenced his killers that their child will grow up seeing images of his dead father that ‘no son should have to endure’.
Rigby, 25, was ‘mutilated, almost decapitated and murdered’ by Adebowale and Adebolajo, who ambushed him outside his barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, on May 22 last year.
Rebecca Rigby said in her victim impact statement: ‘The one thing that overrides everything is that I know my son (Jack) will grow up and see images of his dad that no son should ever have to endure, and there is nothing I can do to change this.’