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Last Updated: Thursday, 7 February 2008, 15:53 GMT
Senegal 'gay wedding' men freed
Men holding hands
Homosexuality is illegal in Muslim-majority Senegal
Police in Senegal have released several men arrested over the publication of pictures said to depict a wedding ceremony between two men.

No official reason has been given for their release.

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

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

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

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

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 prove that an earlier article on homosexuality in Senegal was true.

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

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