An American couple is facing the death penalty in Uganda after being accused of child trafficking and torturing considered one of three foster children from a Christian ministry there they give the impression of being after.
Nicholas Spencer and wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, each 32, have been in custody since December 9 after neighbors in the capital, Kampala, reported their alleged torture to police.
They moved to this country in East Africa in 2017 to do humanitarian work and the following 12 months they’re raising three children from the welcome ministry in the city of Jinja.
In line with police and native media, this involved the alleged victim, a 10-year-old boy who attended a special school and is HIV positive.
In notifying them of their preliminary arrest, Ugandan police said the Spencers “consistently tortured” the 2020 boy, “which attracted the attention of neighbors” who captured a few of the incidents on video.
The couple kept the boy barefoot and “naked all day” and “occasionally forced him to squat in an ungainly position along with his head all the way down to the floor and his arms spread wide,” police said.
He was also forced to sleep on a wood platform with out a mattress or bedding, and was fed only cold meals from the refrigerator, police said.
Forces also stressed that the boy “could have endured more severe acts of torture away from the camera.”
A guardian told police that just one child was tortured because foster parents accused him of being stubborn, hyperactive and mentally unstable, in response to local Every day Monitor outlet.
“I wanted to depart my job, but I knew that if I left without doing anything about it, the torture would proceed,” the caregiver reportedly said.
The Spencers were initially charged on December 9 with aggravated torture, which carries a life sentence. They pleaded not guilty to this charge.
This week they faced a further charge of child trafficking, which carries the death penalty if convicted, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The couple recruited, transported and retained the child by “benefiting from a vulnerable position for the purpose of exploitation”, in response to the list of allegations.
The brand new plea was read out on Tuesday as the Spencers appeared in magistrates’ court. They weren’t allowed to press charges as more serious charges can only be heard by the Supreme Court.
A high-security court hearing date has yet to be set for the couple, who’re being held at Luzira Prison, a maximum security facility on the outskirts of Kampala.
The couple’s lawyer dismissed the case as a “fishing trip” by authorities, saying they’d no evidence.
“The last time we were in court, the state said the investigation was closed, and yet today they added a latest allegation and said the investigation is ongoing,” she told Agence France-Presse.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
The attorney had previously applied for bail for the Spencers, claiming they’d unspecified ailments that would not be treated in prison.
Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer previously had a GoFundMe for an emergency surgery for “joint and back problems,” which has already required seven back surgeries.
Her appeal detailed how they “relocated to East Africa” to do “humanitarian work focused on women’s empowerment and education” but needed to return home to Spartanburg, South Carolina for surgery.
“Since we live abroad, we do not need medical health insurance in the US, which suggests that any medical expenses related to this surgery have to be paid out of pocket,” she wrote, receiving lower than $5,000 of the $28,000 she had sought .
Their application for bail was denied as prosecutors insisted that there have been no ailments that would not be treated in Uganda’s prison system.
“They don’t have any social or family ties in Uganda, and the crime they’re currently accused of is a serious crime that carries a life sentence, so the likelihood of bail is actually, really high,” said prosecutor Joan Keko. Court.
The U.S. Embassy in Kampala said it was aware of reports of the arrest and detention of two U.S. residents and was monitoring the situation. He declined to comment on Wednesday about the latest charge and the potential death penalty.
With postal wires