UGANDA GAY PLAY PRODUCER DEPORTED

Despite failing to prosecute him in court, the Ugandan authorities have deported the British man who put on a banned gay-themed play.

A British foreign office spokesman confirmed to the BBC on Tuesday that David Cecil had been forced to return to the UK on monday evening.

He left behind his Ugandan girlfriend and young daughter.

“We are concerned that he was deported without being given an opportunity to challenge the deportation order through the Ugandan courts,” the spokesman said.

Cecil was arrested by immigration officers at his home last Thursday, on the basis of him being an “undesirable person,” before being deported. He had lived in Uganda for about five years.

In January, the Makindye Magistrates’ Court dismissed charges of “disobeying lawful orders” against Cecil due to lack of evidence.

The charges stemmed from him putting on the banned play The River and the Mountain in August last year at the small cultural centre in Kampala that he ran with his girlfriend . He faced two years in jail.

The play deals with a Ugandan gay man who is killed by his employees because of his sexuality.

Speaking to Channel 4 News in October, Cecil, said that the case against him was “quite crazy” and that he had simply been offering a “modest contribution to Uganda’s theatrical scene”.