Ugandan Court Orders Deportation Of British Man For Having Gay Sex

KAMPALA, Uganda — A Ugandan court on Wednesday ordered the deportation of a British man facing criminal charges related to images of him having sex with another man.

A lawyer for Bernard Randall (pictured) said prosecutors were using the excuse of an expired visa to seek Randall’s deportation, after failing to find evidence against him in the criminal case. Lawyer Francis Onyango said his client traveled to Uganda on a tourist visa that expired after his passport was stolen.

Jane Kajuga, a spokeswoman for Uganda’s directorate of prosecutions, said prosecutors dropped the case but did not explain why.

Randall, 65, likely will be flown out of the country on Thursday, after a magistrate ordered his immediate deportation, police commander Edgar Nyabongo told the Associated Press.

The Briton was charged last year with trafficking in obscene material. His laptop computer was stolen from his home and photos on the computer showing him having sex with another man were sent to a Ugandan newspaper that published them. That led to the charges.

Randall will be the second foreigner deported from the East African country over alleged homosexual offenses. Last year, the British producer of a gay-themed play was deported after being jailed for staging the play without official authorization. Such authorization is not usually required to stage a play.

Homosexuality is criminalized in Uganda, where lawmakers last month passed a new bill that prescribes life imprisonment for “aggravated” homosexual acts. The bill, which appears to have wide support among Ugandans, has been opposed by the president, who says it is too harsh.

Rights groups have condemned the bill, saying it is draconian.


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PHOTOSTORY: Naked man holds his girlfriend hostage with a meat cleaver for five hours 'because his in-laws refused to let them get married'!

 

Terrifying: The man, who later stripped naked, was surrounded by armed police in Sanya, China

 

Siege: Identified in reports only as Lin, the man took off his shirt in the five-hour standoff with police

 

 

Knife: The man waved the meat cleaver around as shocked onlookers called police. He reportedly took his girlfriend onto the roof after her parents refused to give their blessing to the couple's marriage

 

Naked: The man then stripped to his underwear and forced his terrified girlfriend to do the same, reportedly to shame her in front of their neighbours. Some reports said he had suspected her of having affairs

 

 

Bizarre: At one point during the rooftop siege the man took off all his clothes, right, before being tackled

 

As the man came down into the square, still holding his girlfriend, he was chased by police and the army

 

Showdown: Law enforcement officers make their first contact with the man, who finally lets go of his hostage

 

Saved: The man's girlfriend appears hysterical as he rounds the corner and is thrown roughly to the ground

 

Arrest: The man's girlfriend watched as he was detained, still not wearing a shirt, after the five-hour siege

 

Grim spectacle: Hundreds of onlookers had gathered in the square as the standoff reached its finale

 

The man has reportedly announced that he planned to kill his girlfriend. He now faces a lengthy prison term

 

Caught: Passers-by look on as the construction worker, still topless, is led away in handcuffs. The man now faces a lengthy jail term - and according to reports, not even his own parents had approved the marriage in the first place.

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'I was playing outside when my mother told me I would marry. My life was ruined'.....Touching story of an Ethiopian former child bride, forced into marriage at 10, pregnant at 13 and widowed by 14

Alemtsahye Gebrekidan was 10 when she married a boy of 16

She later became pregnant and gave birth to her son at the age of 13

Her husband was killed fighting in Ethiopia's civil war when she was 14

Now 38, she lives in London and campaigns against child marriage

Alemtsahye Gebrekidan was 10 when her childhood came to an abrupt end. 'I was playing outside and my mum called me inside to the house,' she remembers of the day her world changed forever.

'She said "you're going to marry". I was surprised and I cried but I didn't say anything to them [her parents].' Her wedding, to a boy of 16, took place just two months later.
Shocking though it might seem, her experience is by no means unique. According to World Health Organisation figures, 14.2 million girls under the age of 15 are forced into marriage each year.

 

The end of childhood: A child bride is pictured in Tanzania. Alemtsayhe Gebrekidan has told of how she suffered a similar fate when she married age 10

 

Problem: Early marriage, such as this one taking place in Malawi, are the fate 14.2 million girls every year

 

New life: Alemtsahye Gebrekidan was married off at the age of 10 but now lives in London

Most come from India, the Middle East, and like Alemtsahye herself, from sub-Saharan Africa - Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia among them.
The consequences are appalling. Along with an education and childhood cut short, girls suffer a traumatic initiation into sexual relationships, are put at risk of domestic violence and STI's, and have the chance of a career or better life taken away.

Worse, many also die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications - the leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 and 19 years old in developing countries, according to UN figures.
'Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects,' comments Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of UNFPA.
'A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled.'
It's a view with which Alemtsahye agrees. Now 38 and living in London, she says she still feels angry with her parents at times and says her life was 'ruined' by her early marriage.
'My parents and his parents decided [on the marriage],' she adds. 'I didn't choose.'
Before the subject of marriage was raised, Alemtsahye remembers a happy childhood in Ethiopia's northern Tigris province.

 

Work: After her marriage, Alemtsahye left school and spent her time on chores such fetching water instead

CHILD MARRIAGE: THE FACTS

• One third of the world’s girls are married before the age of 18

• One in nine are married before the age of 15.
• If present trends continue, 142 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday over the next decade. That’s an average of 14.2 million girls each year
• Girls living in poor households are almost twice as likely to marry before 18 than girls in higher income households. 
• Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.
• Pregnancy is the leading cause of death worldwide for girls ages 15 to 19. 
• Child brides face a higher risk of contracting HIV because they often marry an older man with more sexual experience.
• Girls aged between 15 and19 are two to six times more likely to contract HIV than boys of the same age in sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: International Centre for Research on Women

'I was in school,' she remembers, 'although I stopped the school when I was married. I do have happy memories of childhood - it was just eat and play.'
All that ended when it was decided she would marry a boy, who until the day of their wedding, she had never met.
'I didn't know him,' she says. 'I was OK when I saw him - he was a child like me. He was upset as well, the same like me... he was 16 years old.'
As Alemtsahye's story reveals, girls aren't the only victims of forced marriages, although as Jacqui Hunt, London Director of campaigning charity Equality Now makes clear, their experience is often far more traumatic.
'Boys do get married young and that is an issue that needs to be addressed,' she explains. 'But the majority of child marriages involve girls.
'Also, boys tend to marry girls same age or younger while girls marry much older men. Boys also aren't taken out of education while girls run the risk of early childbirth and all the complications that brings.'
While Alemtsahye was, at least, given a husband closer to her own age, the wedding meant leaving home, leaving school and beginning life as a traditional Ethiopian wife.
'I was collecting water, wood and cooking for my husband and the days were like that,' she remembers.
'The water was far away and not near to our house. We would go far, then come back and I would cook for my husband.'
By the time she was 13, Alemtsahye, although still a child herself, had a baby son, Tefsalen, now 25, to care for as well.
She remembers the pregnancy and birth as a traumatic time, made worse by the fact that her immature body couldn't cope with the physical demands of carrying a baby.
'When I was pregnant, it was painful and I cried,' she recalls. 'And also when the baby was delivered it was so painful because I was a child.'
But if pregnancy was difficult, motherhood was even tougher and made worse by the fact that in 1989, Ethiopia was in the throes of a vicious civil war.
The conflict, which raged intermittently from 1974 until 1991, eventually left more than 1.4 million dead, among them, Alemtsahye's young husband who was just 19 when he was killed fighting with rebel forces to overthrow Ethiopia's barbarous Marxist dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam.

 

The 20 countries where child weddings are most common and the percentage of girls involved

 

Difficult: Like this child bride, photographed in Uganda's Katakwi district, Alemtsahye had her son at 13

CHILD BRIDE HOTSPOTS: COUNTRIES WITH WORST RECORD OF FORCING EARLY MARRIAGE

1. Niger
2. Chad
3. Central African Republic
4. Bangladesh
5. Guinea
6. Mozambique
7. Mali
8. Burkina Faso
9. South Sudan
10. Malawi
11. Madagascar
12. Eritrea
13. India
14. Somalia
15. Sierra Leone
16. Zambia
17. Dominican Republic
18. Ethiopia
19. Nepal
20. Nicaragua
Source: UNICEF

'After the baby was born, there was a very bad war, and my husband, they took him, and he was 19 years old and he was dead in the war,' she says, her English slightly halting as she remembers.
'I was a widow at 13 and when [my husband] left me, he left me with a one-year-old baby. It was very hard. Very difficult for me left behind with a baby and still a baby myself.'
And although she hadn't wanted to marry her husband, Alemtsahye says she still feels sad when she thinks of his short life and how little enjoyment he had.
'I feel sorry for him because he did not enjoy his life,' she says. 'He married young and finished in a war that ended his life. When I see his son, I sometimes cry.'
Left alone with only her son, Alemtsahye was left vulnerable and soon fell into the hands of traffickers, tempted by promises of a better life abroad.
Leaving her son with her mother, she travelled to Egypt where she worked as an unpaid domestic servant.
But just two months after arriving, more traffickers appeared - this time promising her a new life in the UK.
'I was smuggled to London by Arab people,' she explains. 'They said: "you are working with us and we will take you to London". They brought me and then they left me here.'
Still just 16-years-old, the former child bride was now an asylum seeker, initially placed with a foster family because of her youth but swiftly moved to a tiny flat of her own.
She went back to school and learned English and now helps to run a charity called Girls Not Brides which aims to help former child brides from Ethiopia.
Her son, now 25, lives in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and grew up with his grandparents, only seeing his mother during her occasional visits home.
'It was so hard, very difficult,' she says frankly. 'I was thinking how to bring him to live with me [in London] but I can't bring him now because he's in his 20s. I tried last year and they said no.'
Did she ever worry that her parents might try to marry him off at a young age as well? If they had, says Alemtsahye, she would have found a way to stop the wedding.

 

Children: Alemtsahye says parents should allow their daughters to have a childhood and be educated

 

Global problem: India is the country with the highest number of child brides, this little girl among them

 

'I told him: "Never ever think to marry young! I wanted him to get educated so I said to him: "look at me, I am your mother, look at everything that messed up my life!"'
'He is a carpenter,' she adds. 'I am very proud of him now!'
Although Alemtsahye's story has a happy ending, she's aware that the problem of child marriage shows no signs of going away and, if WHO estimates prove correct, could become increasingly widespread over the next five years.
'I would say to girls, don't marry. Enjoy your childhood and go to school - learn. For me, I feel my childhood was robbed. I missed my education - I ended up empty - with nothing! I learned everything in London.'
And for the parents of those girls, her message is stronger still. 'Why do you damage his or her life?' she asks.
'Send them to school to study. Do you know the problems that come with marrying off a child so young? They will miss their childhood.'


For more information on child brides and Alemtsahye's efforts to help them, see girlsnotbrides.org

#dailymail.co.uk

Happy 64th Birthday, Billy Ocean!

Exactly 64 years today, Billy Ocean was born in Trinidad. Billy Ocean is a British recording artist who had a string of R&B international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British R&B singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s.


Originally, he was named Leslie Sebastian Charles, but he changed his name to Billy Ocean probably because he really liked goats and the ocean.....


As a child, Billy's father moved the family to London where Billy worked as a tailor for Bugle Boy pants. Billy Ocean soon became a singer and then achieved unprecedented chart success. Most people agree that out of Billy Ocean's 23 chart-toppers, his best song is "Caribbean Queen."


 

VIDEO: Ejigbo Pepper Sodomy & Murder Case : Perpetrators Arrested At Oba Moruf's Palace In Lagos

All the perpetrators of a bestial torture and sodomy of three women in Ejigbo which happened February last year, have been arrested according to Sahara reporters.

The arrest of the sodomy gang happened at the palace of Oba Moruf Adisa Ojoola of Ejigbo earlier today.

The arrest was possible due to immense pressure on Oba Moruf himself, he reportedly got all the men assembled at his palace around 11pm Saturday night. The gathering of the gang by Oba Moruf followed a closure of the market yesterday, which prevented the market men and women from carrying out their trading activities until the perpetrators were identified and brought to book.

The gang’s torture and sodomizing of a lady by thrusting of a bottle of ground pepper and sticks in her genital had resulted in her death, two months after. She was later identified as “Juliana” by her father, a palm wine tapper, who revealed that he also lost a toddler in the incidence as his wife, mother of the baby while being tortured by the gang was not allowed to attend to the baby.

In addition to torture, the gang also destroyed the palm wine tapper’s house and banished him from the community, after he was made to pay N50,000 as fine to secure the release of his wife and two daughters.

On Thursday, last week, Oba Moruf was invited by the Lagos Assembly Committee regarding the investigation into the crime. A source familiar with the meeting of the Oba with the committee told our correspondent that the Oba’s demeanor at the meeting was cooperative, and he did not spend much time. The previous day, Wednesday, the Iyaloja (Ejigbo Market women leader) also visited the committee on invitation. She was accompanied by her husband, who pledged support toward the investigation.

The Babaloja, who allegedly received a fine from the palm wine tapper and also supervised his banishment, did not honor an invitation by the committee. He gave the excuse that he had injury on his leg. But sources in the market said the Babaloja may have had the injury when he scaled a fence to escape arrest by a police team that visited the market for investigation last week.

At a public hearing upon constitution of the Lagos Assembly committee, the police, the local government chairman, market women and other members of the Ejigbo community had denied knowledge of the crime, even as sources from the community insisted the crime happened in the public glare.

As efforts progressed into finding the perpetrators, the police, through its DPO in Ejigbo, CSP Oliver Abbey had clearly shown complicity and laxity by claiming it doubted the event happened at all, evidently by doing nothing about it. CSP Abbey was later deployed out of the area after his compromised position became clear to his superiors.

It is expected that the arrested gang would be tried for the crime of murder, and the illegal sum collected from Mr. Freeman, the palm wine tapper to secure his wife and daughters recovered.

Mr. Freeman’s family is also expected to be rehabilitated.




#saharareporters