Two young Tunisians have been convicted of “indecent assault through obscene behavior” on the basis of women’s clothing found at their flat, the ADHEOS LGBT advocacy organization has reported.
The men, aged 19 and 25, have been handed prison sentences of two months, escaping the harsher three year sentence awarded for homosexual acts.
The residents of the coastal town of Sousse avoided the harsher three month sentence under Article 230 of the Tunisian penal code which criminalizes “sodomy”.
Nonetheless, at the request of a judge the men were subjected to invasive “anal examinations” after they were arrested on December 8, the Huffington Post Morocco reported. Their lawyer Fadoua Brahem described the action as “a violation of their bodies,” demanding the National Order of Physicians find a solution to the issue of doctors being required by law to conduct the tests.
The legal team supporting the men also claimed that the evidence used to prosecute them was seized during an unwarranted search of the flat they shared together. Makeup and women’s clothing found at their home were the sole evidence used in the unnamed defendants’ conviction.
Some Tunisians have taken to social media to express their anger over the judgement. One Sousse resident appealed on Facebook: “Just let them be!!” Others responded with cries of “let them live!”
This is not the first time Tunisian law has violated the rights of the LGBT community. In December 2015, six students were prosecuted under the “sodomy” law and sentenced to three years in prison, in a case which sparked public debate. In September 2015, the story of a young man called “Marwan” galvanized public opinion in a campaign which saw his one-year sentence for homosexuality annulled.
Members of the LGBT community are subject to persecution across the Arab world, facing execution for ‘sodomy’ in Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, and lengthy imprisonment in many other countries. Not to mention, of course, Daesh’s horrific execution of homosexuals by throwing them off roofs.
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