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White House Pleased With Pardoning Of Malawi Couple

05/29/10-by Bridgette P. Lavictoire
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has issued a pardon for a couple convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts. The pardon comes after a visit by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were sentenced to fourteen years in prison. While the couple have internationally be reported as being a gay couple, internal to Africa, Tiwonge Chimbalanga has been reported as being female since that is how she identifies. The issues brought up on that are rather complex.

President Murharika stated after meeting Secretary General Ban “In all aspects of reasoning, in all aspects of human understanding, these two gay boys were wrong – totally wrong; however, now that they have been sentenced, I as the president of this country have the powers to pronounce on them and therefore, I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released.” The law that they were sentenced under dates back to the colonial era.

The White House has issued this statement:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Today’s Pardoning in Malawi

The White House is pleased to learn of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s pardon of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. These individuals were not criminals and their struggle is not unique. We must all recommit ourselves to ending the persecution and criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity. We hope that President Mutharika’s pardon marks the beginning of a new dialogue which reflects the country’s history of tolerance and a new day for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Malawi and around the globe.

Monjeza and Chimbalanga are to be released on Monday. Currently, the United Nations is trying to put pressure on Malawi to reverse laws which date back to British rule of the nation. Those laws often date back to the Nineteenth Century and are not dissimilar to the ones currently in place in Uganda.