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Gay News: A judge has sentenced a gay couple in Malawi to 14 years hard labour for 'unnatural acts' and 'gross indecency'.
By: Nigel Robinson
14 years for being gay
14 years for being gay
Gay Malawi couple sentenced to 14 years hard labour
"I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example," Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa declared.
The Judge had earlier said that gay sex was “against the order of nature”.
The men, 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga and his partner Steven Monjeza, 26, were arrested in December after a party they had held to celebrate their engagement.
The judge convicted the men of engaging in gay sex, which is illegal n Malawi, and which he said was “against the order of nature”.
The laws under which the two men were prosecuted date back from colonial times, and their defence lawyers have argued that such laws are unconstitutional, and violate the country’s 1994 constitution.
A lawyer for the couple said:
“Unlike in a rape case, there was no complainant or victim in this case.
“Here are two consenting adults doing their thing in private. Nobody will be threatened or offended if they are released into society.”
Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director of Amnesty International, has called the sentence "an outrage”.
She said that Amnesty International would continue to campaign for the two men to be freed and described them as prisoners of conscience.
The verdict and sentence has also raised concerns that it will force gay people into hiding, thereby hindering the fight against HIV and AIDS.
It is estimated that 1 million Malawians – about twelve per cent of the population – are HIV-positive.
In an article in the Independent, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell argued that homophobia in Africa is largely a product of the laws which were imposed on the continent by its past colonial rulers.
“Homophobia in Africa is mostly a colonial imposition,” Tatchell wrote. “But this is no excuse for these now-independent nations to perpetuate colonial-era anti-gay laws and attitudes.
“It is time to finish the African liberation struggle by ending the persecution of gay Africans.”
Homosexuality is illegal in at least 38 African states.
