From the Independent Online - South Africa
February 5, 2008
Five detained after gay wedding story
Dakar - Five people have been detained and more are under investigation in Senegal over alleged death threats against the editor of a magazine which ran an article on a homosexual wedding, police said on Tuesday.
"Five individuals have been taken into custody for the moment. The first ones on Saturday, all are being held in detention" at the police criminal investigations division, police told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The source declined to give details of the interrogations, but added that "the inquiry is ongoing, and other people are being investigated."
According to local media, these detentions followed death threats against the editor and a photographer for the magazine Icone, which published a story last week on a same-sex wedding, graphically illustrated with pictures of two men exchanging rings and several dozen guests whose faces were partially blackened.
Homosexuality is outlawed in Senegal, a majority Muslim country in west Africa.
Under Senegalese laws acts "against nature with an individual of the same sex" are punishable with a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a fine of between 100,000 CFA francs (about R1,7-million) to one million francs.
The newspaper Le Populaire on Tuesday reported that five suspected homosexuals were in detention and that an Icone photographer had been questioned by police on Monday and later released. - Sapa
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