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.
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