Reuters has reported that two men from Gao, Mali, who were due to be executed for having gay sex by an extreme Muslim militia, were rescued when French-led forces liberated the town.
France, along with other African nations and including the Malian army, intervened to end a ten-month rebellion by groups of Tuareg tribes and Islamist extremists.
The groups have taken over most of Northern Mali, including the town of Gao enforcing Sharia law, including punishing thieves with amputation and executing gays.
Badou Ahmed, one of the men told Reuters’ reporters yesterday (3 January) that he was arrested after being accused of having gay sex but was able to walk free after the French-led troops took over Gao.
Ahmed is covered with scars and walks with a limp, which he reported was a result of being beaten unconscious by the militias.
Ahmed told Reuters that he had not been allowed to present witnesses at his trial and that his captors had threatened to cut his throat for being gay.
Alitiin Ag Oussman, a second man, was awaiting execution on the same charge, was freed a day before his planned execution.
Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Mali, although a Pew Global Attitudes Project published in 2007, found 98% of Malian adults believe that homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept, which was the highest rate of non-acceptance in the 45 countries surveyed
Commenting on the news, Omar Kuddus, a Muslim LGBT rights advocate based in the UK said: ‘As I have stated on numerous occasions, homosexuality is not illegal or forbidden in the Quran, it is not condemned as haram (forbidden).
‘Fundamental Islamists, having been indoctrinated by religious leaders who impose their own views and interpretations on homosexuality have become obsessed with the idea and impels to commit such atrocities and crimes against humanity.
‘If the French led forces had not rescued, found and freed these two Malian men who were about to be executed today, their plight and deaths would have gone unnoticed.
‘The question must be asked, of how many other gay men are executed, tortured, in the false name of Islam, without this being reported or noticed.
‘Muslims must be reminded and educated that only Allah can pass judgement, not mere mortal men, and that Islam is a religion of compassion and forgiveness, not of murder’.
Watch the report here:
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