Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, the gay couple who dared to stage an illegal same-sex wedding in Malawi, have been sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labour.
The pair was sentenced by a Malawi court on Thursday pursuant to their arrest on December 28 following a symbolic wedding. They were subsequently denied bail and remained in prison pending their trial.
Homosexuality, which is illegal in Malawi and in several other African countries, is an area in which the continent still lags far behind the rest of the world.
The “learned” magistrate, Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa, said: “I sentence you to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour each. That’s the maximum under the penal code. I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example.”
Unfortunately he did not set out how the rest of the world could be protected from the likes of Usiwa Usiwa.
It might be in the interest of the broader international community if the magistrate and members of the criminal justice system who prosecuted the matter be denied access to countries beyond the continent of Africa.
That might go some way to bringing the continent into the 21st century.
Outrageous!
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