A court in Kampala, the country’s capital, granted bail to a U.S. couple who had been held in Uganda since December on charges that they tortured a 10-year-old boy under their custody.
The boy they had fostered and were living with in Kampala, Uganda, was the subject of initial charges of severe torture and aggravated child trafficking against Nicholas Spencer and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both 32 and from South Carolina.
In Uganda, the maximum punishment for serious child torture is life in prison, The couple, who spent 2017 living in Uganda, has pleaded not guilty to all of the allegations.
The pair claimed in their bail application that they had health issues that would require constant care while they were inside.
Isaac Muwata, the court’s judge, concurred on Wednesday, stating that their conditions couldn’t be reasonably addressed while they were incarcerated.
In addition to forbidding them from leaving the country, he ordered them to post cash bonds of 50 million Ugandan shillings ($13,000) each.