FSTDT

Houthi court in Ibb #homophobia #fundie #psycho today.lorientlejour.com

A Houthi-run court in Yemen has sentenced 13 people to public execution on homosexuality charges, a judicial source said Tuesday, as human rights groups decried a rise in abuses by the Iran-backed rebels

The sentences were handed down in Ibb, a province controlled by the Houthis whose attacks on Red Sea shipping since November have prompted retaliatory strikes by the United States and Britain.

Three others were jailed on similar charges, according to the judicial source, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press

Another 35 people have been detained by Houthis in Ibb province on homosexuality charges, the source said

Videos shared with AFP, which could not be independently verified, showed a judge in a court reading out the death sentences on Sunday

It was not immediately clear when the executions were due to be carried out. The sentences are open to appeal.

Death sentences are not always carried out by the Houthis, who control Yemen's most populated areas and have been engaged in a long-running war with a Saudi-led coalition

A 2022 report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said the Houthis have sentenced 350 people to death since seizing the capital in 2014, and have executed 11 of them

NGOs say rights abuses have increased since the Houthis started their harassment of Red Sea shipping, avowedly in protest at the Israel-Hamas war[…]
The Houthis, from Yemen's mountainous north, belong to the Zaidi minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam

The hardline force, founded with the aim of pushing for a theocracy, emerged in the 1990s, rising up over alleged neglect of their region

Saud al-Saadi, Sharif Suleiman and National Communications and Media Commission of Iraq (NCMC) #homophobia #psycho today.lorientlejour.com

A law amendment in Iraq proposes capital punishment for homosexual relations, in what campaigners call a "dangerous" escalation in the country where LGBTQ+ people already face frequent attacks and discrimination

The amendment to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which passed a first reading in parliament last week, would enable courts to issue "the death penalty or life imprisonment" sentences for "homosexual relations"[…]
Homosexuality, much like other gender issues, remains taboo in Iraq's conservative society, though no existing laws explicitly punish homosexual relations

But members of the LGBTQ+ community have been prosecuted for "sodomy" or under vague morality and anti-prostitution clauses in Iraq's penal code

LGBTQ+ Iraqis have been forced into the shadows, often targeted with "kidnappings, rapes, torture and murders" that go unpunished, according to a 2022 report by Human Rights Watch and the IraQueer non-governmental organization[…]
The amendment was "still under discussion and subject to exchanges of viewpoints," said Saud al-Saadi, a member of the Shiite Muslim party Huquq, the political wing of the powerful Iran-aligned Hezbollah Brigades and part of the ruling coalition

Saadi said a second reading had yet to be scheduled, and argued parliament aims to "fill a legal vacuum."

Lawmaker Sharif Suleiman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party said the proposed legislation reflects "our moral and human values and our fights against abnormal social phenomena"

"We need deterrent laws"[…]
The amendment would also set a minimum seven-year prison term for "promoting homosexuality," according to the text seen by AFP[…]
The national media and communications commission is considering banning Iraq-based publications from using the term "homosexuality," a source at the body said

Instead, media outlets would be advised to use the derogatory term "sexual deviance," according to the source, and the term "gender" would also be banned