Abu Dhabi police have arrested 26 homosexual men for attending a mass wedding in a hotel near the city, reports AFP.
Homosexuality in the Muslim world is considered a sin. The unlawful wedding was therefore considered an intolerable act.
The police reported that half the men were dressed in wedding dresses, and half in wedding suits.
The group included 22 Emirates citizens, three from various Persian Gulf countries, and one from India. Police sources indicate that the group is facing a punishment of lashing and up to five years in prison, in accordance with the Islamic law.
Homosexuals living in the Muslim world are pursued by the security forces as violators of the law. In May this year, the Saudi security forces arrested 92 men who were attending a party for homosexuals in Qatif District. The 92 detainees were found wearing women’s clothes, wigs and makeup.
The participants were put on trial, and were charged with “impersonating a woman”; “sexual deviance”; “wearing tight women’s clothes”; and “putting on makeup”.
In an earlier incident, 35 Saudi homosexuals were also arrested, for what was described by local papers as attendance at a gay wedding. Amnesty International is now trying to appeal on behalf of those men, in order to reduce their sentences: between six months and two years in jail, and between 200 and 2,000 lashes.