AP has reported that Al-Qaeda gunmen have gunned down a man in Yemen because they believed that he was gay.
“Armed Al-Qaeda suspects on a motorbike opened fire on 29-year-old Salem Ahmed Hasan in a market in Huta,” a southern town, the official told AP. He said that the man died immediately.
Two other men also believed to be gay were shot by Al-Qaeda in Huta in July. One man was killed and the other was wounded.
Al-Qaeda is leading an insurgency against the Yemeni government and are especially active in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Although the Al-Qaeda gunmen were operating illegally, homosexuality is outlawed in Yemen under the country’s Sharia legal system.
Yemen is one of only seven countries in the world to apply a death penalty for consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex.
