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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Aug 04 2010 - 08:40:09 EDT
Sudan sentences 19 men for wearing women's clothes
Wed Aug 4, 2010 11:50am GMT
KHARTOUM Aug 4 (Reuters) - A Sudanese court on Wednesday sentenced 19 young
Muslim men to 30 lashes and a fine for breaking moral codes by wearing
women's clothes and makeup, a case exposing Sudanese sensitivity towards
homosexuality.
Many of the defendants tried to hide their faces from the around 200 people
who watched as they were lashed straight after their sentencing. The men had
no lawyers present and said nothing in their own defence.
The trial judge said police had raided a party thrown by the 19 men and
found them dancing "in a womanly fashion," wearing women's clothes and
makeup. He said there was a video of the party and that one woman who was
present had fled the scene.
The defendants were charged with violating Sudan's public morality codes.
Local newspapers reported that the party was held to celebrate a same-sex
wedding, propelling it into a talking point all over Khartoum's conservative
Muslim society. The court on Wednesday made no mention of a marriage
ceremony.
One lawyer present, who declined to be named, said legal advocates would
have been afraid to take on such a defence.
"These people did not get a chance for justice," he said. "Public opinion
and the media prejudged them and lawyers were too scared to come and defend
them."
Islamic sharia law has been weaved into Sudan's legal code and was a
sticking point in a 2005 peace deal which ended more than two decades of
civil war between Khartoum's Islamists and the mostly Christian and animist
southern rebels.
The south was exempted from sharia but it still applies in Khartoum, where
many non-Muslims live. Khartoum's women's jail is filled with southern
non-Muslims convicted of manufacturing or selling alcohol.
(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz, Writing by Opheera McDoom; Editing by Mark
Heinrich)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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