I was falsely declared HIV Positive — ex-convict

CRIME II SUSPENSE II INTRIGUE

BUIKWE - Living in Kitega, Lugazi municipality, Buikwe district and working at Tembo Steels in 2020, Simon Peter Longoli intervened to stop a street fight just like any reasonable citizen would do.

This was the beginning of his long term suffering, writes Joseph Batte

That morning, as Simon Peter Longoli travelled from home to work, he came across a small crowd standing beside the road where someone was being beaten. “My trouble and suffering started on September 27, 2020,” Longoli says.

“I met people watching a fight between two people. I also stood there to watch and even tried to separate them. After a few minutes, I saw police surrounding the place and arrested everyone who was there.” At first, three other people arrested with him were released on police bond after a few days. Longoli was left behind, alone on the file.

Prison to prison  

Two weeks later, on October 11, 2020, Longoli was taken to Lugazi Magistrate’s Court. Charges of assault were read to him and he was remanded to Kawuka Prison.

However, police drove him back to Lugazi Police Station and kept him in their custody for seven more days. Then, on the eighth day, very early in the morning, police dropped a bombshell.

They charged him with a new and shocking crime: aggravated defamation of a juvenile. The alleged victim was a young person who was also in custody at the same police station. Longoli was stunned.

“How could I possibly have committed such an act while I myself was a detainee under police watch?” Longoli says.

Declared HIV positive  

He says although the accusation made no sense, on October 19, 2020, police handcuffed him and took him to Kawolo General Hospital for what they called a PF24 examination. His blood sample was collected. A short time later, the results came back: he was told he was declared HIV positive.

“I protested that I was not sick. But the results were later handed over to police, which used the same results as part of my police file,” he says.

That same afternoon, Longoli was taken back to the same Lugazi Magistrate’s Court. Fresh charges of aggravated defilement were read. The State Attorney, Lydia Atubo, told the court that the offence had happened while Longoli was in police custody.

The magistrate appeared surprised, but proceeded. She told Longoli he had no right to speak at that moment and that he would remain silent until investigations were complete after 180 days.

Longoli denied the charges, but he was remanded to Nakifuma Government Prison. 

Enrolled on ARVS 

The very next day, October 20, 2020, the Officer in Charge at Nakifuma, Superintendent Nalule, handed Longoli over to the prison’s medical worker.

Based only on the police hospital paper, Longoli was immediately enrolled on Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, and he embarked on the first-line treatment for HIV. No fresh test was conducted by the prison.

“These are the drugs that I started swallowing right away from October 20, 2020,” he says, adding that the drugs began to attack his body almost immediately.

His lips changed colour from black to red and developed painful wounds that lasted for months. Food would not stay in his stomach. He suffered constant headaches, stress and deep frustration.

The psychological torture was crushing. He felt marked as a dying man. Stigma and discrimination followed him everywhere in prison. Other inmates, even some officers treated him differently. His family started pulling away, believing the HIV story. “It was really a hard and a stigmatised life,” Longoli says.

The man who entered prison healthy was now broken in body and spirit. As weeks turned into months, Longoli was moved from one prison to another: from Nakifuma to Kitalya MiniMax in December 2020, where he continued the medication. Then, in June 2021, to Nakasongola Government Prison.

New medical test  

In every new place, medical officers listened to his story and ordered fresh tests. The results were shocking this time. Longoli was negative. Tests in December 2020, March 2021 and June 2021 at Kitalya all showed he did not have HIV.

At Nakasongola, Health Centre II, under Superintendent Evans Abiyo, another test was done and more blood samples sent to the Uganda Virus Research (UVR) centre in Entebbe in August 2021.

“Also those came back showing that I was okay,” Longoli says. In May, 2022, he was transferred to Upper Prison in Kampala. At the time, he had spent nearly two years behind bars for a crime he supposedly committed inside a police cell.

Turning moment  

Then came a breakthrough. On July 2, 2022, The Resident Judge of Mukono, David Batema visited Upper Prison with other officials, including the Deputy Registrar and the Regional DPP.

Longoli explained his entire story — how the case was fabricated while he was in custody, the false HIV results and all the negative tests. The judge listened carefully.

He looked at the indictment and immediately ordered another HIV test. Longoli was taken under escort to Murchison Bay for sampling.

The results were brought back to the judge: negative once more. The judge left promising action. On July 13, 2022, a formal court order for re examination was issued.

A physician from headquarters came to Upper Prison, collected samples and in August the results confirmed again that he was HIV negative.

Senior Superintendent Brian Bazira called Longoli to his office and informed him of the good news, saying his file had been sent to the DPP’s office in Kampala. He waited again.

Months passed with no feedback. In March 2023, prison officers forced him to attend a plea-bargaining session in Mukono.

He refused to plead guilty, telling the lawyer and officials that the case was completely fabricated. He was returned to Upper Prison the same day.

In July 2023, during a major plea-bargaining camp led by the then Chief Justice Alfonse Owinyi-Dollo, Longoli’s file came up again, and he explained his case.

However, despite his protests, Justice Jane Okua Kajuka sentenced him to six years’ in prison.

In 2024, Longoli filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal against both the conviction and sentence. By the time it was being processed, his sentence had almost run its course.

On September 24, last year, Longoli finally walked out of prison a free man after spending nearly five years behind bars for a crime he did not commit and a disease he never had.

He had lost everything. His rental room property was gone.

“I had to start a new life right away from scratch,” he says. Longoli’s message is clear: “There are many people in prison who did not commit the offences they were convicted for. They are there because of ignorance, poverty and a system that does not listen.”

Refused to stay silent 

While in Upper Prison, Simon Peter Longoli refused to stay silent about the false accusations of defilement and being wrongly enrolled on Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs while in prison.

He started writing letters. He wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the time, Jane Francis Abodo (current Principal Judge), asking for his file to be reviewed and transferred from Mukono to Kampala.

He received acknowledgement slips, but no real action. He wrote again. Still nothing.

He then wrote to the Principal Judge at the time, Flavian Nzaija (current Chief Justice), who responded positively and copied the Deputy Registrar in Mukono, asking for the file to be put on session so the case could be heard quickly, either to proceed if he had a case to answer or to release him if he did not.