FACED with a barrage of international condemnation – and the threat of a cut in foreign aid -Â the President of Malawi yesterday pardoned gay couple Steven Monjeza, 26, and his partner Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, who were jailed last week for 14 years with hard labour.
In the dock: Steven Monjeza, left, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga
Malawi’s first openly gay couple, they had been behind bars since December, when they were arrested two days after holding a public engagement ceremony in front of 500 onlookers.
Bingu wa Mutharika issued the pardon during a press conference with Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General in the capital, Lilongwe.
The news will not go down well with vindictive Christian homophobes in Malawi and other parts of the world who reacted with joy to the jailing of the pair.
The Rev Levi Nyondo, General Secretary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Livingstonia Synod, said, for example:
As a church we don’t support homosexuality or same-sex marriages. That is both un-African and un-Christian. We are happy they have been sentenced to 14 years in jail.
A magistrate’s court sentenced Monjeza and Chimbalanga to the maximum 14 years in prison on May 20 after convicting them of buggery and gross indecency.
In sentencing them, Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said:
I am giving you a scary sentence so that the public must be protected  …. Malawi society is not ready to see its sons marrying other sons, nor daughters marrying daughters. It is immoral in our society.
A day later Rev Nyodo urged the government of Malawi, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, not to be bullied by foreign donors into legalising homosexuality.
The donors can stay with their money, we have our morals to protect. The government should stand firm, we are supporting it. They should not be bullied into submission by donor money.
In issuing the pardon, the President said:
These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws, however, as the head of state I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions.
Ban Ki-moon added:
I do appreciate and commend the very courageous decision to pardon these two gay boys. Â President Mutharika told me it is not because of foreign pressure but he is exercising his presidential power.
But he emphasised:
This outdated penal code should be reformed wherever it may exist. Any harassment or violation or discrimination against people based on sexual orientation is discriminatory. It’s against international human rights law.
In an address to Parliament, he called for changes to legislation on gay sex, which is illegal in Malawi and in another 37 out of 53 African nations.
The US State Department had called the verdict:
A step backwards in the protection of human rights in Malawi.
In the UK, which is Malawi’s largest donor, the sentence was condemned by Alan Duncan, the International Development Minister, as “both shocking and disturbing”.
The Department for International Development was understood to be reviewing the £80 million it contributes annually to Malawi, saying that “respect for human rights underpinned” Britain’s relationship with the country.
Duncan was one of 67 MPs to sign a Commons motion calling on the President to free the men.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 30th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I heard on the news today that now the President has stated that if they do not change their ways, they could be re-arrested.
I signed Peter Tatchell’s petition and was so pleased to hear the good news.
We will just have to wait and see.
May 30th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Great news,but I think the bit Duncan might have neglected to mention is that the aid to Malawi ought to be reviewed anyway.
When you break it down I think you’ll find that a lot goes to Christian charities, not directly to any Malawi local or national government scheme. And as an African commentator on Nicky Campbell’s ‘Big Questions’ programme mentioned just this morning, much of it is things like church schools which exist because there is no real state school system, and where kids learn about the ‘evil’ of homosexuality in the first place.
May 30th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Yes, saw this on the news yesterday. Wonderful dose of sanity and golden example of how carefully measured pressure from a lobby group in the UK really can save individuals from a ferocious abuse of human rights.
As for the Rev Nyodo, that fact that he would prefer the citizens of Malawi to go without vital donations rather than see gay people not being imprisoned says it all about his own moral compass.
May 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
A blow may be too big a word in this context; a doubt this couple would have been pardoned with the international pressure on the Malawi government. I’m sure they couldn’t do without the £80 million that was being reconsidered. And gays won’t be safer after this, I’m afraid. Time for a big rethink on aid; only money for those countries that share most of our ‘values’, maybe?
May 30th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
As dumb as it sounds they are lucky they were not in a muslim state or they would now be hanging from a beam somewhere on public display. I think the world is on a madness spin. Up is down, right is wrong. By making a statement in front of 500 people they must have known they would be persecuted. By arresting them the government displayed extreme backwoods ignorance. Whatever happened to live and let live? Every group, be it secular or religious is now becoming fanatic that the world must follow “their” views. We were not all created the same–not only physically, but we each have a mind and thoughts that are unique to us. I am more for finding a way to “agree that people will disagree”. Learn to live with it and putting a stop to all this persecution and cultist behavior
May 30th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I don’t know how much of a blow it will be to the bigots. They’ll shift immediately into victim mode, whining about how they’re being persecuted for upholding their deeply held religious beliefs and traditional morality blah blah blah. Meanwhile though they may not be jailing gay people outright, they’ll still be making their lives hell.
Christianity is a curse.
May 30th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Buffy
I agree. Christianity is a curse. But. sadly, more.
Like all other ‘mainstream’ religions it is a form of man-made madness that restricts and confines intelligence and relegates rational human beings to the ranks of retards.
May 31st, 2010 at 5:19 am
It is a better outcome than I could have hoped for. For every cause there is a Rosa Parks or a Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Ghandi who are willing to risk their lives in order to put an issue of injustice front and center of public debate. These gentlemen are heroes in my book, but, I’m sure they know, the struggle has just begun.
NeoWolfe
May 31st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Just watched sundays big questions on iplayer – utterly appalling! the repugnant attitudes of the two muslims and the anglican guy was horrific. It was like a peek into the dark ages – wanting people put to death – and hell is hot?
There was an admirable but single lisping voice of reason from the lad from the centre for social cohesion, but hatred, evil, and primitive mans’ religious superstition was given a most unwelcome airing, thousands of years past its repulsive hate-filled idiotic sell-by date.
Very nasty stuff.