XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: ws21-DD32A0.13272220032014@70-3-168-216.pools.spcsdns.net   
      
   Four Nigerian men have received 20 lashes each after an Islamic   
   court in the northern city of Bauchi convicted them of gay sex,   
   officials say.   
      
   Confessions had been forced from the Muslim men after they were   
   beaten up in custody, a rights activist said.   
      
   They were among a group of people arrested late last year.   
      
   Homosexual acts are illegal in the West African state under both   
   Islamic and secular law – the latter was tightened earlier this   
   year.   
      
   Same-sex marriages, gay groups and shows of same-sex public   
   affection are now banned throughout Nigeria.   
      
   ‘Ordered to pay fine’   
      
   Another Muslim man also received 20 lashes in January after the   
   Islamic court in Bauchi convicted him of homosexual offences.   
      
   Most states in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria have   
   adopted Islamic law, known as Sharia, since the end of military   
   rule in 1999.   
      
   The BBC’s Ishaq Khalid in Bauchi says details about the latest   
   case are sketchy, but court officials have confirmed the   
   whippings.   
      
   It seems the court wanted to avoid publicity after an angry   
   crowd disrupted proceedings last month, demanding the death   
   sentence for the four, our reporter says.   
      
   The judge did not impose the death penalty because the   
   homosexual offences had taken place a long time ago, and the men   
   had repented, he says.   
      
   The men, aged between 20 and 22, were also ordered to pay a fine   
   of $120 (£70) each, Dorothy Aken’Ova, a rights activist with the   
   Nigeria-based International Centre for Reproductive Health and   
   Sexual Rights, told the Associated Press news agency.   
      
   Rights groups were trying to raise the money – otherwise, they   
   will remain in prison, she said.   
      
   The men should not have been convicted because they were beaten   
   up and their confessions forced, she said.   
      
   Their families, mainly subsistence farmers, turned down an offer   
   of legal representation because they preferred to negotiate with   
   the judge and get the case behind them, Ms Aken’Ova said.   
      
   Nigeria is a deeply conservative country, where most people –   
   Christian and Muslim – are opposed to homosexuality.   
      
   http://www.citifmonline.com/?p=4517   
      
       
      
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