Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga need your help and it’s urgent

Update: (29th May) Steven and Tiwonge have been pardoned and released. Thank you to everyone who campaigned to make this happen. Moments like this show us what’s possible when good people stand together.

There is more to do, of course. Please support the UN-led campaign to change the law in Malawi so this cannot happen to another couple. One thing I will do today is write to Ban Ki-moon to thank him for his critical intervention. You can contact him too, via the UN website.

Original post:

Please do something to support Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. They are a couple in Malawi and have just been sentenced to 14 years hard labour. Their crime? They declared their love for each other publicly. And they are both men.

These guys are not criminals by any civilised definition, yet they look sure to die in terrible prison conditions unless the international community steps up.

They were arrested in December after holding an engagement party. Homosexuality is illegal in Malawi.

Amnesty International has adopted the couple as prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa programme director at Amnesty, says: “Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga should never have been arrested or prosecuted. That they have been sentenced to 14 years of hard labour is an outrage.”

The defendants have reportedly been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. They told their lawyers that they were beaten by police while in custody.

You can join the protest this Saturday 29th May outside the Malawi High Commission in London or the United Nations in New York. Check Facebook for the latest details.

The remainder of this post is given over to Peter Tatchell who has some more practical things you can do to help, if you want to.

These are four ways you can help:

FIRST

Send a letter or postcard of support to Steven and Tiwonge. In this difficult time, they need to know that people around the world love and support them. Get all your friends to do the same. Lots of letters will send a powerful signal to the government of Malawi that the couple have international support.

Write to:
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, Prisoners, Chichiri Prison,
P.O.Box 30117, Chichiri, Blantyre 3, Malawi

SECOND

Sign Madonna’s petition which condemns the jailing of Steven and Tiwonge and which calls for equality and human rights:

http://www.raisingmalawi.org/AddYourName

THIRD

Write a letter to your elected political representative. Urge him or her to write a letter of protest to Malawian President and to the Malawian Ambassador in your country.

If you live in the UK:
Email your MP and all your MEPs via this website:  http://www.writetothem.com

Ask your MP and MEPs to protest to the Malawian President and to the Malawi High Commission in London.

FOURTH

Make a donation by post or BACS electronic transfer to the Malawi Defence Campaign, organised by the UK-based LGBT organisation OutRage!.

OutRage! will use all money donated to support Tiwonge and Steven with food parcels, medicine, clothes, blankets etc. and to help fund the campaign for their release.

By BACS electronic transfer:
Account name: Outrage
Bank: Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank, Bootle, Merseyside, GIR
0AA, England, UK
Account number: 77809302
Sort code: 72-00-01
For electronic transfers from overseas (outside the UK), please
ADDITIONALLY quote these codes:
BIC: ALEIGB22
IBAN: GB65ALE1720001778093 02

By cheque:
Write a cheque payable to “OutRage!” and send to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT. Enclose a note giving your name and address and stating that your donation is for the Malawi Defence campaign.

Thanks for your concern and commitment to justice for Tiwonge and Steven.