A man has been jailed in Senegal in the first sentence handed down under a new law banning same-sex relationships, a judicial source told AFP.
Senegal has made dozens of arrests under this legislation, which came into force at the end of March after being approved by parliament and signed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
A Dakar court last Friday ordered the man to be sentenced to six years in prison and fined him the equivalent of $3,600 for what the law describes as “acts against nature,” as well as for “indecent acts,” the source said.
He added that the other man involved is a fugitive.
The law provides for penalties of between five and ten years in prison and fines of up to $18,000.
Same-sex relationships are considered deviant by many in Senegal, a Muslim-majority African country where advocacy for LGBTQ rights is perceived as a Western import incompatible with local values.
Since the law came into force, 63 people have been arrested by the police unit in charge of enforcing it.
