Senegal has charged 71 men with “unnatural acts” as it intensifies a crackdown on homosexuality, the public prosecutor’s office said late Friday.
The men were brought before a court while 28 other defendants have had charges against them dropped entirely, according to a statement.
In March, Senegal passed a new law doubling the penalties for homosexual relations, which are now punishable by five to ten years in jail.
Recent months have seen more than 100 people, including some local celebrities, arrested on suspicion of homosexual acts and in some cases of deliberately transmitting HIV.
The charges were issued following a preliminary investigation, the statement said, adding that charges of “endangering the lives of others” and “wilful transmission of HIV/AIDS” were dismissed.
Prosecutor Saliou Dicko told AFP on Saturday that a French national, an engineer in his thirties living in Dakar and detained since February for “unnatural acts”, had had the charges against him dropped.
The public prosecutor’s office has appealed the decision.
Recent months have seen several West African countries enact laws criminalising homosexuality.
