[Al Ahram] Two Moroccan men were tossed in the slammerDrop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
for four months Friday for kissing in public, after a string of recent controversies over homosexuality in the conservative Moslem kingdom, said NGO officials who attended the trial.
The men, named as Lahcen, 38, and Mohsine, 25, were convicted of an "affront to public decency" and of an "unnatural act with a person of the same sex," and also fined 500 dirhams ($52/46 euros), the sources said.
Homosexual activity is punishable in Morocco by up to three years in jail and the divisive
...politicians call things
divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never
divisive,they're
principled...
law -- known as Article 489 -- has been the subject of several protests, including a recent topless demonstration by feminist group Femen in front of Rabat's famous Hassan Tower.
The men were incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
on June 5 after kissing outside the tower in solidarity with the two French women, who were deported after their protest.
Morocco's General Directorate of National Security said the women had "performed an obscene sequence" and were "topless, sporting a slogan that offended public morality".
Images shared on social media showed the women embracing each other with their tops off in front of the landmark minaret.
"In gay we trust" was written in black on the torso of one of them.
A day after the Femen incident, 1,500 people protested against the group outside the French embassy, but it was Lahcen and Mohsine who drew the most headlines after they appeared to kiss each other.
The names of the men and their photographs quickly appeared in local media, and the trial has attracted criticism from rights groups.
The furore over homosexuality in Morocco boiled over last week when weekly magazine Maroc Hebdo was forced to withdraw its latest edition featuring a front cover headline asking: "Should we burn gays?"