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Morocco: Six men face jail for gay sex

Fri 14 Dec 2007 In: International News View at Wayback

Criminal verdicts in Morocco against six men sentenced to prison for homosexual conduct should be set aside and the men released an international human rights organization said on Wednesday. A court in Ksar el-Kbir, a small city about 120 kilometres south of Tangiers, convicted the men this week of violating Morocco's penal code, which criminalizes “lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex". The court sentenced three defendants to six months in prison and two defendants to four months; it sentenced the sixth, who it also convicted of the unauthorized sale of alcohol, to ten months. The defendants range in age from 20 to 61 years old. According to lawyers for the defendants, the prosecution failed to present any evidence that the men actually had engaged in the prohibited conduct. "These men are behind bars for private acts between consenting adults that no government has any business criminalizing in the first place," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The men's rights to privacy and freedom of expression have been violated, and the court has convicted them without apparent evidence; they should be set free." The men have been in jail since they were first arrested by the police between November 23 and 25, after a video circulated online purporting to show a private party, allegedly including the men, taking place in Ksar el-Kbir on 18 November. Press reports claimed the party was a "gay marriage." Following the arrests, hundreds of men and women marched through the streets of Ksar el-Kbir, denouncing the men's alleged actions and calling for their punishment. The video showed no indications of sexual activity. The men all pleaded innocent. At the trial, the judge refused to release the men provisionally pending their appeals. Criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct violates human rights protection in international law, Human Rights Watch said. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Morocco has ratified, bars interference with the right to privacy. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has condemned laws against consensual homosexual conduct as violations of the ICCPR. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has held that arrests for consensual homosexual conduct are, by definition, human rights violations. In the preamble to its constitution, Morocco "subscribes to the principles, rights, and obligations" consequent on its membership in organizations including the United Nations "and reaffirms its attachment to human rights as they are universally recognized." "In applying an unjust law in an unjust fashion, the Ksar el-Kbir court has fueled the forces of intolerance in Morocco," said Whitson. "If Morocco truly aspires to be a regional leader on human rights, it should lead the way in decriminalizing homosexual conduct."    

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Friday, 14th December 2007 - 9:46am

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