Two gay men jailed in Malawi but later pardoned by the country’s President Bingu wa Mutharika have been released from prison, say reports.
Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga had been given 14-year jail terms for “gross indecency and unnatural acts” after celebrating their engagement.
They were pardoned during a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
But a government minister told the BBC the men could be re-arrested if they continued their relationship.
The case sparked international condemnation and a debate about homosexuality in the country.
Monjeza, 26, and Chimbalanga, 20, were released from prison on Saturday evening, hours after Mr Mutharika announced their pardon.
Gift Trapence, director of the campaign group Centre for the Development of the People (Cedep) which had been supporting the couple, said they had been taken separately to their home villages.
“The prison authorities told them they had been given instruction from above that they should take them to their respective homes,” he told the AFP news agency.
Mr Trapence said they had been “warmly welcomed by their respective relatives” when they arrived home.
‘No change’
[pullquote]”We have our own rules and laws which we are following, and our own constitution. Our constitution is not the same as your constitution,” she said in her BBC interview.[/pullquote]
But Patricia Kaliati, Malawi’s Minister of Gender and Children, said Monjeza and Chimbalanga’s release did not mean they could continue their relationship.
“It doesn’t mean that now they are free people, they can keep doing whatever you keep doing,” she said.
Malawi map
Ms Kaliati said they could be rearrested if they “continue doing that”.
The men’s lawyer said they were unlikely to be treated in the same way if they were arrested again.
“The pardon only applies to the offence under which they were convicted. If, for example, they go back and the state is of the view that they have recommited the offence, the pardon will not apply,” said Mauya Msuku.
Monjeza and Chimbalanga were arrested in December last year, a day after they celebrated their engagement and had been in custody ever since.
They were convicted of engaging in gay sex under a law dating back to colonial rule by Britain and sentenced to 14 years with hard labour.
Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa said their actions went “against the order of nature”.
But on Saturday, Mr Mutharika said he was pardoning the pair on humanitarian grounds.
“In all aspects of reasoning, in all aspects of human understanding, these two gay boys were wrong – totally wrong,” he said.
“However, now that they have been sentenced, I as the president of this country have the powers to pronounce on them and therefore, I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released.”
His comments came after a meeting with UN chief Mr Ban, who praised the decision as courageous.
But Ms Kaliati insisted that the president had not bowed to international pressure in releasing the men.
She said Malawi would not now reconsider its laws against homosexuality.
“We have our own rules and laws which we are following, and our own constitution. Our constitution is not the same as your constitution,” she said in her BBC interview.
Many of Britain’s former colonies have similar laws outlawing homosexuality – India overturned it last year.
In Uganda, MPs are debating whether to strengthen the laws to include the death penalty for some gay people – a move which has infuriated Western governments and human rights campaigners.
[ BBC ]
i hope this is not to promote gay marriages ka lwenu God will punish us:-?:-?:-?:-?:-?
# Inu a malavi mwatisebanya .”Yakumbuyo” is adisgrace. If your fathers practiced “yakumbuyo” could you have been born? please we need to regenerate as humanbeings by “doing” it the normal way.But if you can be normal, please go to luapula province of Zambia my tumbuya can use your male “instruments”for their witch-craft.You never know they can discover the cure for
AIDS with your now useless tools.
Ha ha ha seems like it is a good season for southern african presidents pardoning victims of baseless imprisonment(wonder if they are enshrined in the constitution).One zambian one victim accused of having had insulted the president and the malawi one involving a victim of “wrong” sexual orientation.Typical of the animal farm.:-?
# 2 ulei chindika which male instruments ? Aint you just proud that we in luapula we have more advanced african natural science than the one you have in your southern province which makes you shag sugar canes in nakambala sugar estate ?:d
Good for them. They were not supposed to be jailed in the 1st place8->
#4 nishi ulechita uko kubulaya. I take it you ran away from ubuloshi bwafita fititi.Please mbuya osayesa uko Yakumbuyo boi.Tell me mbuya what “advance african natural science” are you doing overseas there.Can prisoner disappear in thin air from the solid concrete walls. How did you travel to that country? on a tea spoon on on the plane.I wish the best on your way back.ubapase moni ba-“Mulamu”
Just last week you were celebrating africa freedom day now the white homosexual muzungu’s have shown how much freedom there isn’t in Africa after the Malawi govt buckled to their pressure. They only intervene using the UN when it’s their fellow homosexuals but other atrocities like the niger delta region, dumping harmful chemicals onto the land in sierra leone, western sponsored coups etc they turn a blind eye
In Africa small issues are turned in to big things why send them to prison in the first place life is about choices and they have the right to do what they want before i came to England i did not want to hear about gays not until i went to school with them at University and came to accept them its not abig dael here any way.
Atase ka Wa mutharika, how can you sink so low to please the so called donors? Those chaps shud have rot in jail because they are lower than pigs and dogs. What a president.
# 6 actually i tell people here that we have the real harry porters in africa(katele is one of our own) and they were laughing.Our african heritage is advanced,the best thing we can do is to tap and develop the science.Imagine how a big plane like a boeing goes up in the air if the western world concealled the scince behind it we could as well have thot it was magic but good enough they have done it using physics.Similarly it think it is about time we did the same with our african science.Thank God beyonce is not in luapula ngabalilya umwaiche in her sleep.:d
Good move.
Homose is un biblical however
leave it to God to Judge
butiii zooona! of all the prisoners ba fulama ebo benga lekelako! sitisekelamo ATASE! ifyabudongoli,ati ba pre……………..!
#5 and #6 muleincindika aii,if such acts are accepted where you are, it does not mean africa should accept them.Those chaps went“against the order of nature”, and such chaps should be put where they belong,THE CAGE.
Is ‘Muzaleka’ prison still there?
Sorry #6, I meant #8
VJ ma man, abo uleyeba intambi balilabako ku england baya! balipilibwila akapampa ZED! One thing is that YAKUMBUYO should not be tolerated in our mother Zambia. limbi ni ba fulamisisi uleeba so tabakunfwe! ku england techi tupape! Bend em!
iseni mu diaspora mwe finangwa mwe……
Dosile africa. You dance to the tune of the international community
No# 4 Luapulan Africans invented science. Thus we need not indulge in ungodly witchcraft. From the zimbazamabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia, Swahili kingdoms to Timbuktu. Only problem is that we choose to read shaka Zulu and think that’s it.
He should have not pardoned them but had the law reduce the sentence to 60 days jail and church time. Then dishonored the act publicly on television.
#13 your opinion, not mine! I am entitled to my own opinion, preference, decision and choice[-x.
¥15 sorry i can not read bemba?
Bravo to the president for releasing those two innocent people that have been wrongly arrested!! If I may ask? At what point in their lives do people choose their sexuality!!!
i think malawi is the most useless country in the world. it is always bending backwards for outsiders. first madonna came and ripped apart their adoption laws , they bent backwards, now some ban ki moon guy convinces the president to pardon these morphies and he bends backwards, no wonder kamuzu declared himself a life president. these chaps are so docile. no wonder we cant give you vera chiluba
24, You do not choose your sexuality, its according to your sexual organs period! Stop the nonsence.
All those supporting this unbiblical act are blind to the reality of nature and God’s creation. If God was to allow this dirty homo thing why didn’t he create two men in eden? God’s wish was for human beings to keep on multiplying in numbers. Remember that homosexuality was one of the reaons God destroyed Sodom and Gomora. How long will you stupid ones remain in darkness and continue ignoring wisdom? You think running away from Zed to live in the diaspora makes you wiser than He who created and put you on this earth through you father’s sperm and your mother’s ovuli? If your father did it with another man would you be here on earth, whether in London or US? By the way why forsake sweet pussy and prefer your freind’s shit exit? Mulekwata amano bafikala atase!!!
#24 and #25 I salute you for your good reasoning and judgment. We need people like you who are able to think positively before expressing your opinion may be Zed can move from the current stagnation. You are good ambassadors of Zed wherever you are. Unfortunately even out there in the diaspora we still have our own Zambians like chi # 23, and chi #8, who are struggling with poverty of the mind. How can a sane person support even what a dog or pig can’t do? If livestock and edible wild animals were also homos, would they be able to reproduce so that we can still have them in steady supply. Think twice.
#nga waishiba shani ati cibemba??????????
you are playing with donor funds…terms and conditions, conditions and terms and last but not the least, terms and conditions.
#22 nga waishiba shani ati cibemba??????????
# 25 but you have to know your limits as a human being. You cant tell me if you are blind you can go ahead and play soccer with pipo with sight? you need to know your space, Being a morphy is not a normal human setup. so if one is a morphy they can practice that but they must know their boundaries. You cant go around naked claiming its your right and because you were born naked, society has rules and they must be followed.
#29 don’t blind us into thinking that if we Africans put our feet down and reject immoral acts like homosexuality then we will lose out on donor funds. In fact is it not the same whites who brought the bible to Africa? The same bible that condems homosexuality? If this can be part of terms and conditions for aid then we better continue suffering than sacrifice our integrity morality. Coz this sounds like enjoying a sumptuous meal in a dirty and stinking toilet!!!!!!!!!!
government should get out of peoples bedrooms
Two stupid angry shameless monkeys. Better appear on news for good reasons (e.g. Nobel Prize) and not SODOM & GOMORRAH activities. There’re better things you can pick or learn from the west..definatly not homosexuality…Silly:-??
No 8 London. If its not a big deal in London, it should not be the same with Malawi and Zambia. In London you have racism though you can refute but I was in Oxford last week over the same issue. Please if you are doing yakumbuyo with your friends in London, spare Malawi. Malawi is Malawi and London is London unless you are not educated about false analogy. I heard you that you have seen the inside of a University, but education has failed to educate some of the educated people. I would have sentenced them to death by hanging.
Big Charlie No 27. Uli mwana wanzelu. Not some of these guys in diaspora who seem to be living in diaspora through back door business. Emo balila
Why would a human being go to bonk another mu mpu ti? Even cows wouldn`t do that. Umuselu ine. Lock those dogs up. Ban Ki-moon should be sent back to choncho land ala!
Ba Big Charlie
Ati “#24 and #25 I salute you for your good reasoning and judgment. We need people like you who are able to think positively before expressing your opinion may be Zed can move from the current stagnation. You are good amb***adors of Zed wherever you are.”
You comedians would be proud of anything in the name of Africanism, something you cannot even fully grasp. Where you get the balls to call Malawians’ docile and LGBT people those names one wonders. You are a member of a failing state whose claim to fame is Christianity, HIV and poverty. You sit idle either oppressing others or promoting the lack of healthy debate and expect Jesus to come in tomorrow and hand you a piece of heaven for your outspoken hatred. Haha; oh the ways of the self righteous and ignorant.
# 38 malawians are docile, the largest number of garden boys in south africa are malawians, how do you travel 1000 kms to be a garden boy? they are the only country that had a life president and did nothing about it. right now because the presidents decision their constituon is compromised. already the minister of children and gender is struggling how to handle the decision. you cant arrest them twice for the same offence. and you cant stop them from being gay either. so in effect gays can break the law and the govt will sit and watch. because of ban ki moon malawi is in a constitution dilema. that korean chap should just go and attend to serious world issues like how north korea sunk a south korea ship (his native country)
39, if at all you ever get the chance to visit Malawi, you will find a nation almost entirely dependent on foreign aid and NGO activities. They are a mere reflection of the failures of most African states in the region. What today you call docile, tomorrow in Zambia we call peace, and we shift in all these directionless manners swinging at everything but the enemy. We have a life expectancy below the 40’s, our own leaders have given up on our education and health care choosing to ship their families to the very nations we criticize for embracing men of all orientations, we have no answers for HIV, depending on subsidized medication from nations we criticize and we claim peace and love are reasons we let politicians use us while calling Malawians docile.
I think while you may have note that several Malawians seek greener pastures in S.Africa that often culminate in no more than taking care of someone’s lawn, you are misguided in categorizing Malawians as docile for this reason, well at least anymore docile than we Zambians are. I find it ironic that while we look down on Malawians for being ‘garden boys’, there is a whole world laughing at our blind faith, our cheap politics, our illiteracy levels, our polygamy, our witchcraft views and so on and so forth. I don’t mean to distance myself from Zambia, but I think that it is a joke that we justify hatred with the Africanism card. And btw, the dilemma is the simple consequence of an unjust law, one like the one in S.Africa not too long ago, that implied to be black was to be less…
:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((:o:((
22: ba london vuvuzeni……kekekekekekekekekekekekeke! pakuti mwishibe ati chibemba ninshi namuchizozwela no kucunfwikisha! kokolenipo!