Gay people are jailed for homosexuality in Zambia
Two men in their thirties have been found guilty of having gay sex in the southern African country, Zambia.
Before their court trial, authorities forced the men aged 30 and 38 to undergo anal examinations.
Forced anal examinations are outlawed around the world, but some countries still use them to prove a man’s homosexuality. The exams involve doctors or other medical personnel forcibly inserting their fingers, and sometimes other objects, into a person’s anus. It is an attempt to determine whether that person has engaged in anal intercourse.
The General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have called for the practice to stop. The United Nations described forced anal exams as torture.
Eyewitness testimony
The men faced trial at the Kapiri Mposhi District Court, according to a report in the Lusaka Times. Magistrate Ackson Mumba eventually convicted the men after delivering a 90 minute judgement.
Magistrate Mumba found the men guilty of having had ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ under section 155 (a) of the penal code. They face sentencing at a later date at a High Court and face up to 14 years in jail.
Five witnesses testified against the men, with four saying the saw the two men having anal sex at a nearby lodge in 2017.
Even though the two men pleaded not guilty, their lawyers did not provide any witnesses or arguments in their defence.
It was that lack of argument that Magistrate Mumba took as a sign of the men’s guilt.
‘The law is what it is and not what it ought to be,’ Mumba said of the anti-gay laws.
Like many former British colonies, Zambia has held on to the colonial era anti-gay laws. Arrests of suspected gay people are commonplace, with Section 155 of the Penal Code also applying to lesbians.
