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Gay news: They face up to fourteen years in prison for committing 'unnatural practices between males'
Couple denied bail for their own protection
Protest planned for gay Malawian prison couple
Activists will gather in central London on Monday 22 March for a rally against the arrest, trial and imprisonment of the Malawian same-sex couple charged with committing "unnatural practices between males" and "gross indecency".
Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, and Steven Monjeza, 26, were arrested shortly after their December symbolic marriage ceremony and have been held in prison ever since, having twice been refused bail.
The couple face up to fourteen years in prison and will hear their trial's verdict on Monday, 22 March, which the protest is timed to coincide with.
The rally - outside the Commonwealth Secretariat's head office, Marlborough House, Pall Mall at 12.30pm - has been organised by Outrage, Black Gay Men's Advisory Group, Red Room, Rukus Foundation, Gay Activists Alliance International and an informal coalition of London's black and African LGBT activists.
Outrage's Peter Tatchell said: "We want Steven and Tiwonge released, all charges against them dropped and the repeal of Malawi's anti-homosexuality laws.
"These laws violate the equality and non-discrimination provisions of Article 20 of the Malawian constitution and articles 2, 3 and 4 of the African Charter of Human and People's Rights, which Malawi has signed and pledged to uphold.
"This protest has been organised in response to an appeal for help from the jailed men. From their prison cell in Malawi, Steven and Tiwonge have sent a letter to me, urging more international pressure to secure their release.
"For the last two months, Outrage has arranged prison visits and the delivery of food and spending money to Tiwonge and Steven."
In February, Malawi's constitutional court declined to hear the couple's appeal for a review of their case, which Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said was a simple criminal proceeding without constitutional implications.
The proceedings "deal with criminal offences under the penal code, namely the offence of buggery and indecent practices," he stated.
The Guardian's Africa correspondent reported yesterday that, for their own protection, they had been denied bail by magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa, who said: "The public out there is angry with them."
Chimbalanga, 20, and Monjeza, 26, were the first same-sex couple to commit to marriage in the southern African state, where homosexuality is illegal and carries a maximum fuorteen-year jail sentence.
They were arrested two days after the ceremony and appeared in court in the city of Blantyre to answer three charges of unnatural practices between males and gross indecency.
"Tiwonge and Steven are quite fearful and dejected. They were jeered in court and have been disowned by their families. Conditions in Chichiri jail are appalling. They say they have been beaten in prison and they are now threatened with forced intimate medical examinations to determine whether they have had sex."
