Australian Jailed in Fiji for Gay Sex
The
Sydney Morning Herald, April 6, 2005
(AAP)—A Fiji court has jailed an Australian tourist for
two years for what the judge called a “shameful” and “disgusting”
homosexual act.
Retired university lecturer Thomas Maxwell McCoskar, 55,
and a Fijian man had pleaded guilty to having sex in the city of Nadi over the
Easter period and asked the court for leniency, the Fiji Times reported.
Gay sex is illegal in Fiji, a nation of conservative
Christian values, and carries a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
In sentencing the pair on Tuesday, Magistrate Syed
Muhktar Shah said the crimes committed by McCoskar, from Victoria, and
Dhirendra Nandan, 23, were “something so disgusting that it would make any
person vomit”.
Shah said McCoskar’s actions bordered on paedophilia.
“If you wanted to have fun, you should have stayed in
Australia instead of trying to come to Fiji and exploit our young boys,” he
said.
“With you being a former lecturer, you should have
known that such indecent acts are illegal.”
The newspaper reported that the pair told the court there
was nothing wrong with what they did and Nandan threatened to commit suicide
if jailed.
But Shah told Nandan he should have thought of the
“shamefulness of the crime” before associating with McCoskar.
The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) in Australia said
jailing the pair for what was a consensual act between adults was a violation
of basic human rights.
“We’re also concerned that a lot of Australians who
go travelling to places such as Fiji wouldn’t actually be aware of the
disparities between laws in our countries,” GLRL co-convenor Julie McConnell
said.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
does not mention in its travel advisory for Fiji that homosexuality is a crime
in that country, but reminds travellers they are subject to local laws.
Lonely Planet’s South Pacific travel guidebook says gay
sex is technically illegal in many Pacific island countries but the laws are
rarely enforced.
Regional gay lobby groups plan to hold a forum in New
Zealand later this year to discuss, among other things, reform of
anti-homosexual laws in Pacific nations.
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