10./ 11.01.2012
Last week, five Muslim men have gone on trial accused of having distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be executed. The Derby Crown Court heard that the group of five had allegedly handed out leaflets demanding the death penalty for homosexuality after Friday prayers at a Derby mosque and put them through people’s letterboxes in the local neighbourhood in July 2010, in the run up to the Gay Pride event. By handing out anti-gay death sentence flyers, the five men are accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, which is a breach of the new hate laws that came into force in March 2010. This prosecution is the first of its kind since the legislation came into force. The trial continues. All five men deny the charges; if they are convicted, however, they face a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and/ or an unlimited fine.
