by Rex Wockner
International News
Following on the heels of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's threat to "cut off the head" of any homosexual the government catches, police in the West African nation arrested two Spanish men May 30 for allegedly propositioning two male taxi drivers.
Reports said the drivers feigned interest in the come-ons and lured the tourists to a rendezvous point while surreptitiously contacting police, who arrested the men when they arrived at the location.
The men were released after five days in jail and left Gambia, the Spanish Embassy said.
Speaking on television May 15, Jammeh vowed to enact anti-gay laws "stricter than those in Iran" (which punishes sodomy with the death penalty) and said homosexuals should leave Gambia immediately.
He called homosexuality sinful and immoral, and said any hotel or lodging tolerating the presence of a homosexual would be closed down and the landlord punished.
Current law punishes gay sex with up to 14 years in prison.
Gambia is a tiny country that runs inland from the Atlantic Ocean solely along the flood plain of the Gambia River. It is surrounded on three sides by Senegal. There are 1.7 million residents, of whom 90 percent are Muslim and 40 percent are able to read. Gambians live, on average, to be 55 years old.
