Gambian leader set to sign anti-gay law

Banjul - Gambia's national assembly has
passed a bill to introduce the crime of
aggravated homosexuality into the criminal
code and make it punishable by life
imprisonment in some cases, according to a
copy of the bill seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The bill defines aggravated homosexuality as
cases such as a person having homosexual
relations with someone under the age of 18, or
a person with HIV having homosexual relations.
President Yahya Jammeh is yet to sign into law
the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2014,
which was passed by parliament on 25 August.
Homosexuality remains taboo in many socially
conservative African societies where some
religious groups have branded it a corrupting
import from the West.
"A person who commits the offence of
aggravated homosexuality is liable on
conviction to imprisonment [for] life," said one
section of the bill.
On the day the bill passed, Justice Minister
Mama Fatima Singhateh was removed from
office, though no reason was given for the
decision.
Some of the fiercest African debate over the
issue of homosexuality has come in Uganda,
where President Yoweri Museveni wants to re-
issue an anti-gay law rejected by a court, but
without tough penalties for consenting adults, a
ruling-party lawmaker said in August.
The original version of the law passed in
February punished gay sex with long prison
terms and alarmed Western donors, some of
whom withheld aid in protest. Uganda's
constitutional court overturned it on a
technicality in August.