Lagos, Nigeria (AP) – Four young men were convicted of gay sex and whipped publicly March 6 in an Islamic court in northern Nigeria, a human rights activist said.
The four were among dozens caught in a wave of arrests after Nigeria strengthened its criminal penalties for being gay with the new Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in January.
The men could face further violence in prison if they do not come up with an additional fine of $120 each.
The four men, aged between 20 and 22, were sentenced to 15 strokes plus a year’s imprisonment if they cannot pay their fines.
Dorothy Aken’Ova, convenor of the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights Network, said the men’s confessions were forced by law agents who beat them.
She said they had to lie on the floor of the court to be whipped on their backsides.
The hearings in Bauchi city had been delayed from January, when a crowd tried to stone the accused men outside the court and demanded the judge pass the death sentence.
For fear of further disruption, Judge El-Yakub Aliyu held the March 6 hearings unannounced and in secret.
Aken’Ova said the judge was lenient because the men had promised that the gay acts occurred in the past and that they had since changed their ways.
