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| Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) was among a group of 22 U.S. lawmakers who asked the Nigerian president to intervene in a case involving a 50-year-old man who was sentenced to death by stoning after he admitted to a judge that he had sex with another man. (Photo by Attila Kovacs/AP) |
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HOME > NEWS > WORLD NEWS
By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG COMMENTS
 
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said.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s Lawrence vs. Texas decision that struck down sodomy laws, Nugent explained, it was difficult for gays and lesbians to gain asylum based on their home country’s threat of imprisonment.
“Many judges would say, ‘we’ve got sodomy statutes in the U.S.,” Nugent said. “A year or two sentence incarceration — many judges weren’t considering that persecution.”
One Nigerian gay man who was eventually granted asylum in December 2000 was forced to spend two years in New Jersey detention facilities until his petition was approved, according to Amy Gottlieb, who represented him at the Federal Court of Appeals. Gottlieb said the judge made his decision based on the threat of a 14-year prison sentence and persecution by his tribe.
In Nigeria, death sentences for adultery and sodomy are often overturned on appeal, IGLHRC’s Johnson said. Human rights advocates are hopeful that will be the case with the 50-year-old man in Kano, who has not been identified by name in public reports.
“We believe that there are forces within the court system to keep it in line with international law,” Johnson said.
However, he cautioned, “You never know.”
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