Man charged under new Zimbabwe sodomy laws

Man charged under new Zimbabwe sodomy laws

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN prosecutors are preparing for the first major trial under revised sodomy laws.

A 19-year-old man has appeared before a magistrate in the small town of Karoi, about 200km north west of Harare charged with an aggravated indecent assault on a 3-year-old boy.

Zimbabwe expanded the scope of its sodomy laws in a criminal law review last July.

Under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act of 2004 passed by parliament in 2004, but which only took effect on July 1, 2006, a new sexual crime, aggravated indecent assault, was created.

This crime is committed where a male or female commits an indecent assault involving non-consensual penetration with intent of any part of the body of the victim or perpetrator.

It is more serious than the crime of indecent assault, which does not involve any such penetration.

Under the new law, an intimate hug or smooch between people of the same sex may now constitute a crime.

Before the changes to the law, sodomy, under Section 73 of the Act, referred only to anal sexual intercourse between males. The code has expanded the scope of this crime.

It now includes not only acts of anal sexual intercourse, but also includes any act involving physical contact between males that would be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act.

Isaac Sakala of Grand Parade Farm in Hurungwe was not asked to plead during a brief court appearence last Friday before Karoi magistrate, Elisha Singano, reports said.

Prosecutors say the father of the three-year-old boy, who is Sikhala's workmate, left the boy in his care while going to work.

Sakala, according to prosecutor Benjamin Negato, proceeded to sexually violate the boy through anal penetration and left him with serious injuries.

The boy was rushed to Karoi District Hospital where doctors confirmed he had been sexually attacked. The boy later told police he had been sodomised by Sakala.

The trial is set to open on Friday and Sakala remains in custody.
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