Bay Area Reporter - January 29, 2009
Liz Highleyman

The nine men, most of whom were members of an HIV/AIDS education and advocacy group, were arrested on December 19 following a police raid at the home of a gay HIV outreach worker near Dakar.

The men were convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison on January 6, after confiscated condoms and lubricant were introduced as evidence during their trial. Homosexual sex itself is illegal in the predominantly Muslim country, and the men received additional time for "criminal association."

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and other activists have condemned the government's action, which is stricter than previous sanctions and has left many wondering whether a larger crackdown is yet to come.

IGLHRC's newly appointed Executive Director class=headline0>Cary Alan Johnson told the BBC that "the extremity of this sentence and the rapidness of the trial all really shocks us in a country which has been moving so positively towards rule of law and a progressive human rights regime."

On January 21, IGLHRC announced that Johnson, who has served as the organization's senior Africa specialist for the past four years, would replace longtime director Paula Ettelbrick on March 1.

The government's move is particularly surprising given that Senegal last month hosted the 15th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, with President Abdoulaye Wade welcoming delegates from around the world.

The Society for AIDS in Africa and the International AIDS Society have issued a demand for the men's release. "The arrest of these men based purely on their sexual orientation represents a major setback for the Senegalese response to HIV, which is widely viewed as a model in Africa," said SAA President Joanna Mangueira.

UNAIDS issued a statement calling the arrests "deplorable."

Human Rights Watch also condemned the sentence, expressing concern that the men were being mistreated while in custody.

Senegal's sodomy law "invades privacy, criminalizes health work, justifies brutality, and feeds fear," and "will have a chilling effect on AIDS programs," said Scott Long, director of HRW's LGBT Rights Division. "Outreach workers and people seeking HIV prevention or treatment should not have to worry about police persecution."

Senegal previously made headlines in the gay press in February 2008, after several men were arrested for allegedly participating in a gay wedding and a magazine editor received death threats for publishing photographs of the event.

But conditions in the country are worsening, activists say, and a growing number of gay men and women have gone into hiding or fled the country due to threats of violence.

Veteran U.K. gay activist Peter Tatchell of OutRage! called on people worldwide to contact their legislators and protest at Senegalese embassies in order to "urge the government of Senegal to free the jailed men, repeal its anti-homosexual laws, support the life-saving work of grassroots HIV prevention workers, and cease harassing gay human rights defenders."

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