Death Penalty News

Parliament of Ghana has approved a bill that would criminalize identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The legislation now awaits ratification by President John Dramani Mahama. The proposed law goes further than the country’s existing colonial-era ban on same-sex relationships.  The bill approved by Parliament actually implements a tiered penalty system. While engaging in same-sex intercourse or public displays of affection carries up to 3 years of imprisonment, the bill imposes far harsher penalties of 6 to 10 years in prison for anyone who promotes, sponsors, advocates, or distributes material related to LGBT activities.

In Somalia, Uganda, and Mauritania, the offense can carry the death penalty. DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal‘s parliament has approved a new bill that toughens punishment for homosexuality in the largely Muslim West African nation, the latest African country to impose harsh penalties against the LGBT community. The new bill, which was introduced to parliament last month by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, describes homosexual acts as being “against nature.” It doubles the punishment for those convicted from prison sentences of one to five years to between five and 10 years. Nearly all lawmakers voted in favor of the bill during Wednesday’s plenary, with no opposition and three abstentions. It needs presidential assent before becoming a law, with Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye widely expected to sign it.

Iran confirms that its former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed in Israeli airstrike. Ahmadinejad was reportedly struck at his residence in the Narmak neighborhood of Tehran on February 28 (Saturday), along with bodyguards and companions.  Iranian sources confirmed his death in the attacks, which also killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and targeted other senior figures of the regime.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia on Friday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Two men were each publicly flogged 76 times this Tuesday in the conservative province of Aceh, Indonesia, after being found guilty of engaging in homosexual acts by a court that applies strict Islamic law. Homosexual relations are banned in Aceh, which enforces a strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, but they are not illegal elsewhere in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. "The criminalization of homosexual relations has no place in a just and humane society."

‘My biggest dream is that there will be Pride in the streets of Tehran’ Growing up in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty, Majid Parsa (pseudonym) struggled to accept his sexuality - until he discovered Tehran’s secret gay scene. But it was only when he moved to the UK that he found love and liberation, as he reveals here in Attitude's Rainbow World feature

Iraq has passed a sweeping anti-LGBT law that criminalises same-sex relationships and could see gay people sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted The law, which was passed by Iraq’s parliament on Saturday, purports to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world”.

Footballer Josh Cavallo has revealed he would not compete in the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia if selected, due to the country’s anti-gay laws. It is illegal to be gay in Saudi Arabia, punishable by the death penalty. “I honestly wouldn’t feel safe,” Cavallo told The Mirror. “There’s certain countries I will not go to and play my club football or play with the national team. “At the end of the day, it comes to a point where it’s your livelihood over your job which for me is incredibly sad because this is what I do, I wake up and I breathe football, this is what I’m made for. “To know that I’m limited and stuck in certain countries because they don’t approve of how I love or how I live my life is quite saddening. I wouldn’t want to be entering a space like that at the moment. There’s a lot of improvement that needs to happen before I consider that.” Cavallo calls for LGBT support from wider football community Cavallo went on to say that he wanted more support for LGBT rights from the w...

BAGHDAD, April 15 (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers postponed voting on Monday on a bill that includes the death penalty or life in prison for same-sex relations - a measure that diplomats from Western countries said could have serious consequences for Iraq's political and economic ties if it goes through. Parliament was in session on Monday, with the bill - an amendment to an anti-prostitution law - second on its agenda.

Former French justice minister Robert Badinter, who has died aged 95, saved many lives by dedicating his own to the fight against capital punishment, playing a pivotal role in banning the dreaded guillotine in 1981. Robert Badinter (pictured), born on March 30, 1928, was a prominent French lawyer, academic, and politician who played a pivotal role in the abolition of the death penalty in France. His impactful career reflects his unwavering commitment to human rights and justice. Badinter's journey in the legal realm began with his education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the University of Paris Law School, where he developed a profound attachment for the principles that would shape his future endeavors. After completing his studies, Badinter embarked on a career marked by dedication to justice.

"The [Houthis] are ramping up their abuses at home while the world is busy watching their attacks in the Red Sea," said Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch. A court of the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen has sentenced 13 people to public execution on homosexuality charges, the French wire service AFP reported on Tuesday.  Photo : Crowd watching a public execution in Yemen Another 35 people have been detained for similar charges.

Tropical reefs, safaris, the pyramids: LGBT travel companies deliver dream vacations, even to places where being out and proud could land you in prison. A romantic island getaway in the Maldives. A safari in Kenya. A visit to the pyramids in Egypt. Apart from being popular on bucket lists, these places have one thing in common: Their destinations have strict anti-LGBT legislation. In the Maldives, gay sex may be punished with lashes and up to eight years in prison. In Kenya, it can bring a sentence of up to 14 years. And in Egypt, the authorities are known to throw people in jail for simply waving a rainbow flag. Paradoxically, these trips are also all offered by travel companies founded by and catering to members of the LGBTQ community. In interviews, the founders of four of these companies, which take a combined total of 3000 tourists — most of them American — abroad each year, said they were providing a safe way to meet a growing demand for trips to countries that criminalise LGBT p...

Burundi’s president said gay people should be stoned, amid a larger crackdown on the LGBT community in the East African country. “If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye said in a question and answer session with journalists and the public last Friday, according to Reuters.

KAMPALA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - As a Ugandan court hears a challenge on Monday to one of the world's harshest anti-LGBT laws, there's more at stake than the simple constitutionality of the statute. LGBT activists say the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) has given Ugandans an implicit licence to abuse and discriminate against sexual minorities. While at least seven people have been charged under the AHA since its enactment in May, including two for alleged offences that carry the death penalty, hundreds more have suffered torture, sexual abuse, intimidation and eviction at the hands of private citizens, according to a report released in September by rights groups.

Mauritius' highest court has decriminalised gay sex, saying the ban reflected colonial-era, rather than indigenous values. British colonialists first criminalised "sodomy" in 1898, but the law has not been enforced in recent years. The gay man who brought the case said he was "now free to love whoever I want to without fear". The ruling comes at a time of rising homophobia and tougher anti-gay laws in some African states.

The blind eye turned by the Commission to Uganda contrasts with Brussels’ dogged pursuit of Hungary and Poland for alleged homophobia. The European Commission confirmed this week that it will not suspend humanitarian aid to Uganda despite the East African nation’s criminalisation of homosexuality. Under the new law, practicing homosexuality can result in punishment up to the point of the death penalty, as part of a cultural pivot away from the West by President Museveni. The Commission was responding to a parliamentary question by conservative Swedish Democrat MEP Johan Nissinen concerning approximately €248 million in aid that Uganda has received from the EU since 2017, most recently to combat the spread of Ebola.

The corridors of power within the Islamic Republic are ablaze with a series of sex scandals – seemingly more with each passing day.  Fresh revelations spotlighting the moral and sexual transgressions of high-ranking officials within the system continue to threaten or even topple yet another leader or pillar of Iran’s ruling Islamic system. The latest jolt came on August 19 when a new shockwave of explicit images in contravention of Sharia law emerged. The central figure in the latest scandal was Mohammed Masoudianfar, director general of the state radio and television educational and welfare complex, who featured in images of an act of sexual intimacy with a veiled woman. The woman was later revealed to be a married employee of state radio and television – amplifying the shock. The exposé surfaced through the Radio Gilan Telegram channel. 

More than 100 people were arrested for attending a gay wedding in Nigeria under the country’s draconian homosexuality laws. Police stormed a hotel in Ekpan town, Delta state, southern Nigeria, at around 2am on Monday and arrested more than 100 “gay suspects”. At least sixty-seven people have been detained. Two of those detained in the arrests, one of the country’s largest targeting homosexuality, got married at the event, Delta State Command spokesman Bright Edafe told a press conference.

Ugandan prosecutors have charged a man with "aggravated homosexuality", potentially a capital offence under controversial anti-gay legislation introduced by the country this year, an official said Monday. The law -- considered one of the harshest of its kind in the world -- contains provisions that make "aggravated homosexuality" an offence punishable by death and includes penalties for consensual same-sex relations of up to life in prison. "The suspect was charged in Soroti (in eastern Uganda), and he is on remand in prison. He will be appearing in court for mention of the case," said Jacquelyn Okui, spokeswoman for Uganda's directorate of public prosecutions.

A law amendment in Iraq proposes capital punishment for homosexual relations, in what campaigners call a “dangerous” escalation in the country where LGBT people already face frequent attacks and discrimination. The amendment to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which passed a first reading in parliament last week, would enable courts to issue “the death penalty or life imprisonment” sentences for “homosexual relations”, according to a document seen by AFP. Homosexuality, much like other gender issues, remains taboo in Iraq’s conservative society, though no existing laws explicitly punish homosexual relations.