Two women and a man arrested in the Gambia on gay charges
Three people have been arrested in the Gambia this week on indecency charges related to homosexuality.
Two women, who are from the Gambia, and one Nigerian man were arrested on charges of indecent gay practices, the Gambian Daily Observer reports.
The two women were said to have been engaged in an indecent practice in public with the man admitting a similar offence.
All pleaded guilty and were bailed for a week.
The Gambia’s president Yahyeh Jammeh said earlier this year that homosexuality was a foreign cultural phenomenon, saying: “We know what human rights are. Human beings of the same sex cannot marry or date […] If you think it is human rights to destroy our culture, you are making a great mistake because if you are in the Gambia, you are in the wrong place then.”
Article 144 of the Criminal Code currently makes any gay sexual act punishable with up to 14 years imprisonment.
In 2008, Mr Jammeh vowed to introduce laws which were stricter than those in Iran, where gay acts between men are punishable by death. The Gambia is a mainly Muslim country.
The president retracted a threat to decapitate gays but said they would be driven out of their homes.
The year before he announced a “miracle cure” for HIV/AIDS.
