SENEGAL! 8 YEARS IN JAIL FOR BEING GAY
Nine gay men were each jailed for eight years by a court in Senegal, the highest such sentence in a country where homosexuality is outlawed. The nine, all aged under 30, appeared in court Tuesday charged with "indecent conduct and unnatural acts and membership of a criminal organisation". They were arrested in December in the Dakar suburb of Mbao [Africasia]
This is the first time that the Senegalese legal system hands down such a harsh sentence against gays.
Many gays are already fleeing to neighbouring countries because of the living conditions in Senegal are getting worse and worse.
August 2008: a Belgian and a Senegalese man were sentenced to two-year prison sentences for "unnatural acts".
February 2008: a local magazine focusing on celebrity and nightlife published pictures of what it said was a gay marriage. In the ensuing furore, several men seen in the images fled their homes and in some cases the country.
