10 Men Jailed in Mauritania over ‘Gay Party’ Video

Prosecutors in the Mauritania, where homosexuality is outlawed, have detained and charged 10 young men after a video presented as a “gay marriage” surfaced, a legal source said on Tuesday.

“The prosecutor’s office sent the young homosexual delinquents to prison to await judgment for acts contrary to morality, committing acts forbidden by Allah and circulating a ceremony of debauchery,” a source told AFP.

Prosecutors in the capital Nouakchott detained the men late Monday, the source said.

The 10 were involved in a ceremony on January 11, footage of which appeared on social media, in the local press and in that of neighbouring countries such as Senegal.

Reports initially described the event as the first “gay marriage” in Mauritania, an Islamic republic that bans homosexual practices. The men were arrested a week after the ceremony.

Police Commissioner Mohamed Ould Nejib, speaking on television, said investigators had established that the party was “the birthday celebration of a homosexual” to which other gays had been invited.

The 10 were detained “to help investigations,” he said, adding that all were Mauritanian nationals employed as “domestic workers” in Nouakchott.

Article 308 of Mauritania’s criminal code, which is based on the Sharia Islamic law, bans homosexual behaviour between Muslim adults, describing it as “acts against nature.”

If one is found guilty for homosexuality in Mauritania, the punishment can be death by stoning.