'Great first step' as Sudan lifts death penalty and flogging for gay sex

Amman/London – Sudan's decision to lift the death penalty and flogging as punishment for gay sex was hailed by LGBT+ activists on Thursday as a promising sign after almost four decades of Islamist rule, with calls for prison sentences to be abolished as well.

"These amendments are still not enough but they're a great first step for the transitional government that's trying to implement changes," Noor Sultan, founder of Bedayaa, an LGBT+ group in Egypt and Sudan, said on Thursday.Same-sex relations are criminalised in most of Africa and the Middle East. Sudan was one of six countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia, that imposed the death penalty for gay sex, according to the LGBT+ rights group ILGA.

The legal amendment was part of several reforms announced by the justice minister on Saturday, including plans to decriminalise apostasy - the abandonment of a religion and to permit non-Muslims to consume alcohol. Sultan said the government was discreet about dropping the death penalty for gay sex and its amendment document did not detail what Article 148 - the sodomy law - was about.

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