(Lagos) Eighteen Nigerian men have been found guilty of sodomy by a Sharia judge in the Islamic northern part of the country. The men are awaiting sentencing and under Sharia, or Islamic law, they could be sentenced to death.
The official government news agency Nan reports that the men were arrested in a hotel in north-eastern Bauchi State.
Bauchi is one of a number of northern states which recognizes Sharia law. Elsewhere in the country gay sex carries sentences up to 14 years behind bars.
If sentenced to death the court decision would need the approval of the state governor.
Nan reports that the men were wearing women's clothes when they were arrested and had gone to the hotel to celebrate a gay wedding.
The government frequently alleges that men arrested for being gay were dressed as women and were attending or preparing to attend gay weddings.
More than a dozen men have been sentenced to death in recent years for alleged homosexuality. In most cases their fate is unknown.
Meanwhile, the government is moving ahead with legislation that would strip gays and lesbians of all civil rights.
The bill started out as a ban on same-sex marriage and has been revised to make it a crime for more than two gay people to be in the same venue at the same time.
It prohibits LGBT social or civil rights groups from forming. It would be illegal to sell or rent property to same-sex couples, watch a gay film or video, visit an LGBT web site, or express same-sex love in a letter to one's partner.
The legislation goes so far as to make it a criminal offense to impart information of HIV/AIDS to gays or for non-gays to meet with any group of gays for any purpose.
The penalty would be five years in prison with hard labor.
The most recent arrests have sparked outrage in Britain and is likely to scuttle Nigeria's bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
A movement by LGBT rights activists to block the Nigerian bid began before the arrests and appeared to be gaining broader support on Friday.
Mike Hooper, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation - the organization that will make the decision about the games venue - said Friday that Nigeria should be rejected on the grounds of the country’s homophobic oppression.
The southern half of Nigeria is predominantly Anglican. The primate of the Nigerian Church is Archbishop Peter Akinola who has been at the forefront of opposing gay clergy in the denomination. Conservative Anglican churches in the US have aligned themselves with Akinola.
*365Gay.com
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