Arrests for Senegal 'gay wedding'

Homosexuality is illegal in Muslim-majority Senegal

Police in Senegal have arrested several men following the publication of pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men.

The pictures were published in Icone magazine, whose editor, Mansour Dieng, has since received death threats.

Mr Dieng has also been questioned by police over the issue.

Homosexuality is illegal in Senegal but it is not clear whether the arrests were in connection with the ceremony or the death threats.

The BBC's Tidiane Sy in Senegal said that at least five of the men arrested appeared in the photographs.

According to pro-government newspaper Le Soleil, the arrested men were all seized in "a meeting house which could act as a brothel".

Police have not commented on the case but an official at the Department of Criminal Investigations told AFP news agency that an investigation was under way.

The ceremony is believed to have involved a Senegalese man and another from Ghana or the Ivory Coast, who has not yet been found.

Mr Dieng told Africa Global News that he published the pictures to dismiss accusations that an earlier article on homosexuality in Senegal was untrue.

Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country and gay men and women remain socially marginalised.