Last edited: February 14, 2005


Judge Orders Executions for Lesbian Duo

The Washington Blade, February 23, 2001
World Briefs

By Will O’Bryan

SOMALIA — A judge has sentenced two Somali Lesbians to death, according to the Agence France-Presse news service. The court found the women, one of whom presented herself as a man, guilty of "exercising unnatural behavior."

The court, in a northern region of Somalia that has declared itself autonomous, operates under Somali Criminal Punishment Law, a loose interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. According to the International Lesbian and Gay Association, Somali law explicitly prohibits sexual acts between men but has been more ambiguous about sex between women.

Capital punishment in the region, Puntland, is rare, the AFP reported, but generally carried out by firing squad when employed. The two women, whose names were not reported, currently await execution in the town of Bosaso on the northern coast of Somalia.


[Home] [News] [Somalia]

 

1