Summary
The article titled “4 Accused Gays Whipped in North Nigerian Court”
discusses an incident that occurred on Thursday, March 6, 2014, four young men
were convicted of gay sex and publicly whipped (on their backsides while lying
on the floor of the court) as punishment in an Islamic court in northern
Nigeria. There were dozens that were caught in wave of arrests after Nigeria
tightened their criminal penalties for homosexuality. There was a new Same Sex
Marriage Prohibition Act implemented in January. A judge in Bauchi City meted
out a fine of 20, 000 naira ($120) on Thursday and if human rights
organizations don’t come up with that money they will more than likely face
more violence in prison. Dorothy Aken’Ova, convenor of the Coalition for the
Defense of Sexual Rights, told the associated press that the men (aged 20-22)
were sentenced to 15 strokes plus a year’s imprisonment if they can’t pay their
fines. Aken’Ova feels that the men shouldn’t have been convicted because their
confessions were forced by the law agents who beat them. The families of the
men are embarrassed by the stigma that is attached to homosexuality and refused
an offer of legal representation because they wanted to negotiate with the
judge and get the case put behind them. The hearings had to be delayed since
January because a crowd gathered outside the court and tried to stone the men
and demanded that the judge pass the death sentence. Shots had to be fired in
the air by security officials to disperse the crowd and save the men. In some
north Nigerian states under Islamic Shariah law, homosexuals can be sentenced
to death by stoning or lethal injection, although that sentence has never been
enforced. Aken’Ova spoke with the families who told her that the judge was
lenient because the men had promised that the incidents had occurred in the
past and that they have since changed their ways. The judge feared disruption
so he held an unannounced secret hearing on Thursday and he said a hearing for
another four men accused of sodomy would be heard at a later date.
Analysis
This article highlights the cruel treatment and punishment against individuals
for being who they are and loving who they love. It really angers me that the
government feels that they have the right/power to tell someone who they can
love, have sex with, be in a relationship with, and who they can/can’t marry.
It is bad enough to not legalize gay marriage but to impart physical harm on an
individual whom you say has violated the law is cruel. Whatever happened to
serve and protect? How do you know that these men you arrested really did the
things you say that they did? What if they are innocent? What happened to
innocent until PROVEN guilty? They didn’t even receive a trial with a jury of
their peers instead they were humiliated and beaten in front of everyone that
was present in the court which is wrong so many levels.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/4-accused-gays-whipped-in-north-nigerian-court/2014/03/06/39240f88-a530-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html
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