Comoros couple released after sentencing for gay sex verdict

By Abdou Moustoifa

A court in Comoros released two women on Thursday after a judge found them guilty of engaging in gay sexual activity and sentenced them for a shorter period than they had already served in detention.

The pair, whose names were not released, were arrested in June on charges of engaging in same-sex sexual activity, after having reportedly asking an Islamic preacher to marry them, although that charge was not proven at the trial.

During the trial, which was closed to the public, the two women, aged 19 and 25, admitted to having had intimate relations.

Judge Abdoulahim Hamadi on Thursday sentenced them to six months and five months in jail respectively, for sexual acts "contrary to good morals and against nature."

"I am happy that my clients are released with the lifting of their arrest warrant, but I regret the slowness observed in issuing the verdict," Mze Kaambi, the women's lawyer, told Reuters.

Gay sex is illegal in Comoros, a Muslim-majority archipelago nation in the Indian ocean, but this was the first time a trial involving two women suspected of being gay has been held.