Islamic leaders demand disclosure of gay network

DAKAR, SUNDAY

A prominent Islamic rights movement in Senegal has urged government to reveal the identity of those who facilitated the release of 11 gay men arrested on Christmas eve wedding party.

The movement known as ONG Jamra challenged the prosecutor’s declaration that there were no sufficient justifications to charge the 10 gay couples.

Nine of the gay men managed to escape while police arrested 11 with wedding rings, clothes and lubricants.

They were arrested at 3am in the central provincial city of Kaolack, about 200 kilometers from the capital, Dakar.

But the alleged gay men were set free the next day by the commissioner of police in Kaolack arguing that the prosecutor had not found sufficient justification to charge the men.

The event caused a huge stir across the country as ONG Jamra spearheaded the search to identify the arrested gay couples.

In a statement on Saturday evening in Dakar, ONG Jamra’s leader Imam Massamba Diop revealed the name of one of the couples as Adama Kane and Omar Ndiaye, bride and groom respectively.

But Imam Diop said that his organisation and the Islamic fraternity in the country will not rest until the identity of those who facilitated the release of the gay men was revealed to the public.

Imam Diop said he had already received the blessing and support of the leader of the strongest Islamic fraternity called Khalife General of the Mourides Serigne Sidi Mokhtar Mbacké on the issue.

The aborted wedding party is a sacrilege especially when it coincided with the birth of Prophet Mohammed.

Homosexuality is not punishable by law in Senegal but it is totally abhorred by majority of the inhabitants of the majority Muslim country.