The U.K. is planning a review of Malawi’s aid following a Malawian court’s ruling to jail and subject two gay men to 14 years of hard labor for getting engaged in December.
According to the Times Online, the U.K. Department for International Development “is understood to be considering reducing” budget support but will maintain its overall annual assistance worth 80 million pounds (USD115.8 million) to Malawi. The review, according to the newspaper, is due to happen later this year.
“Respect for human rights underpins our relationship with Malawi and will be taken into account in future aid decisions,” a DfID spokeswoman told the Times.
International Development Minister Alan Duncan, a prominent gay member of Parliament and the Conservative Party, called the conviction “both shocking and disturbing,” the Times reports. He, along with 67 MPs, signed a Commons motion urging President Bingu wa Mutharika to grant the two men freedom.
