Malaysia warns gay government ministers face arrest

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has warned that foreign government ministers will be arrested if they violate anti-homosexual laws while visiting the mostly Muslim country.

Mahathir, Asia’s longest-serving ruler, said that foreign leaders who arrive in Malaysia must obey the law, just as Malaysian officials travelling overseas would bow to regulations in other countries.

‘‘Here, (if) they do it, they will be arrested, as such activities are unlawful,’’ Mahathir was quoted as saying late yesterday by Malaysia’s national news agency, Bernama.

Mahathir added that he would accept any legal action if he were ever arrested in another country for breaking any laws there.

He appeared to be speaking hypothetically throughout, and he did not refer to any foreign minister specifically.

Sodomy in Malaysia is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a flogging. However, the laws are not often enforced and when they are, punishment has customarily been a short jail term or a fine.

Mahathir was commenting on his recent statement that if any homosexual British Cabinet minister visits Malaysia with his boyfriend, the government would ‘‘throw them out’’.

Mahathir, speaking in an interview with the BBC on Thursday, made the statement while explaining that he had planned to step down from power a few years ago but could not after he found out that his then-deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, was allegedly a homosexual.

Anwar has since been convicted of corruption and sodomy and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He claims he was framed to prevent him from challenging Mahathir for power. The government denies it.

When sentencing Anwar to nine years in prison for sodomy last year, High Court Judge Ariffin Jaka said that the sentence reflected the ‘‘utmost condemnation’’ of homosexual acts by Malaysian society.

Mahathir has often criticised the West as decadent and praised Asian family values. In a 1994 book he said that Westerners could think of two male homosexuals as a family, but ‘‘we cannot help feeling that is strange’’.