Malawi pardons jailed gay couple

[babsbunny]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10190653.stm

A gay couple jailed in Malawi after getting engaged have been pardoned by President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Mr Mutharika, speaking as UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited his country, said he had ordered their immediate release.

Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were given 14-year jail terms earlier this month after being convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts.

[Lyric]

1. Thank goodness they're going to be freed.

[Blue-Jay]

2. Barbaric charges & conviction to begin with.

Then again, even Malawi has done away with the death penalty. (about 3 years ago IIRC.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Well done, Ban Ki-moon

Good to see a bit of international diplomatic pressure can sometimes acheive something.

[icymist]

4. There are American and Brit fundies going to these other countries to push for these draconian laws.

Here's part of the article from the OP......
<snip>
Correspondents say Malawi is a deeply conservative society where religious leaders equate same-sex liaisons with Satanism.

Now compare that from an article when the arrest initially happened......
<snip>
The clergy, especially, has accused foreigners of infecting Malawi with sexual Satanism. The Rev. Zacc Kawalala, the leader of the Word Alive Ministry and a member of the national human rights commission, said: “The West has its gay agenda. It wants to look at Africa and say, ‘If you don’t accept homosexuality, you are primitive.’ But we’re not as wicked as the West.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/world/africa/14malawi.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

About the Founder of World Alive Ministry......
<snip>
At 28, this remarkable woman, after three major spinal operations, was in a plaster cast, hobbled on a walking stick and lived on black coffee, painkillers and alcohol. She was faced with yet another operation, when a friend took her to see Pastor Ray McCauley of Rhema Bible Church in South Africa. Barbara who is British was at the time an open-minded agnostic, but this meeting changed her life and her health. Through the healing miracle that occurred, Barbara returned to Malawi to a new life of serving God.

<snip>
In 1995, Reverend Barbara relocated to Ohio in USA, where she is based to-date and she now ministers under Pioneer Ministries International.



http://www.wordalive.mw/founder.html