KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysian authorities arrested more than a dozen men in the northeastern state of Kelantan last month during a late night raid of a “gay party”, a police official said on Thursday.
Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and rights groups have warned of growing intolerance towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Kelantan state police chief Mohd Yusoff Mamat said police arrested 20 men after responding to a public tip-off and conducting surveillance of a rented property in the state capital Kota Bharu in June.
“During questioning, they admitted to being part of a gay group,” he told a press conference.
Mohd Yusoff said although authorities found no evidence that sexual activities had occurred during the gathering, police discovered condoms and HIV medication on the premises.
Police charged three of the men for possession of homosexual pornographic material on their mobile phones, Mohd Yusoff said.
But authorities could not prosecute the other men as there were no specific laws or physical evidence to charge them with, he added.
“We are worried about such behaviour… We will continue to monitor the movement of gay groups,” he said.
The LGBTQ community has faced increasing scrutiny in Malaysia, where sodomy is a crime and Islamic sharia laws are in place banning same-sex acts and cross-dressing.
The multi-ethnic, multi-faith country has a dual-track legal system with Islamic laws for Muslims running alongside civil laws.
Authorities halted a music festival in 2023, after the frontman of British pop band The 1975 kissed a male bandmate onstage and criticised Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws.
In 2018, two women were caned in a courtroom watched by dozens of people after they were convicted of attempting lesbian sex.
Rights groups Justice for Sisters and Amnesty International said LGBTQ content accounted for almost half of all banned publications in Malaysia between 2020 and May this year.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by David Stanway)
Comments