The West African nation of The Gambia has come under criticism from the U.S. State Department as well international human rights organizations after the Gambian legislature approved a law that punishes "aggravated homosexuality" with life in prison. Uganda has also reached the final stages of a new anti-gay law.

The Gambia's president, Yahya Jammeh, signed the bill into law in Oct. 9, according to The Associated Press, but no government officials have notified the public of the law. Lawmakers drafted and approved the bill in August.

According to the bill adding the amendment to The Gambia's criminal code, a person commits "aggravated homosexuality" when doing one or more of seven conditions. These include having same-sex intercourse with a disabled person, being an "offender" with HIV/AIDS, being "a serial offender" or an "offender" who uses drugs or alcohol "to stupefy or over power him or her, so as to enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex."

The punishment for this offense, per the law, is life imprisonment.

Amnesty International reports that The Gambian authorities, including the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Presidential Guards, have arrested suspected homosexuals in the country.

Government officials have arrested five men and three women since Nov. 7, including a 17-year-old boy. Those arrested were taken to the NIA headquarters in the capital city and tortured to confess, according to the organization's report.

"The use and threat of torture against those arrested is truly shocking, but sadly not surprising. Just weeks after Gambia refused UN human rights monitors access to its prisons, we have further evidence of the cruelty inflicted on victims of the security forces -- this time on those simply perceived as being different," said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

The arrests of suspected gay people coincide with the signing of The Gambia's new anti-gay law.

Cockburn condemned the law.

"The new law treats consensual, private sexual activity between adults of the same sex -- which should not be a crime -- in the same way as rape and incest," he said.

Human Rights Watch also condemned the new law.

"President Jammeh's inflammatory public statements against LGBTI people have been put into practice through this odious law and the witch hunt that followed its secretive passage," said Monica Tabengwa, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The law and practice are an affront to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights resolution condemning violence against LGBTI people and calling for those responsible to be brought to justice."

Voicing concerns about violence, the State Department also denounced the law, saying it is "deeply concerned about the reported arrests and detention of suspected LGBT individuals" and that the U.S. "strongly opposes" anti-gay legislation. The U.S. also urged The Gambia not to arrest LGBT people and called on them "to reverse the deteriorating respect for democracy and human rights."

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