A Malawi court has sentenced a gay couple to 14 years in prison, two days after they were convicted of violating ‘the order of nature’.
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were arrested on 28 December after they got engaged in a traditional ceremony and have been in jail ever since.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and in several other African countries.
‘I sentence you to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour each. That's the maximum under the penal code,’ magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa told the two men in a courtroom in the capital Blantyre.
‘I sentence these two ... to a maximum sentence because I want us to stop Malawian sons and daughters from copying the same sex marriages which are un-Malawian and not in our culture and religious beliefs.'
‘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,’ the judge added.
Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the immediate and unconditional release of the couple saying their human rights have been flagrantly violated.
