MOROCCO: British Man Jailed For Homosexual Acts Released Pending Appeal

The British tourist sentenced to four months in a Moroccan prison for "homosexual acts" has been reunited with his family pending the appeal of his case.

Ray Cole, a retired publisher aged 69, was arrested on 18 September at a bus stop in Marrakech. He was arrested alongside Jamal Jam Wald Nass, a local man in his 20s with whom the older man had struck up a relationship online several months previously. This was Cole’s second visit to see Nass, and the two planned to spend five weeks together on a sightseeing tour of the country. Whilst in custody, police say that they found photos on Cole’s phone that depicted ‘homosexual acts’. Homosexuality is illegal in the country and punishable with up to three years in prison, although such sentences are rare. He and Nass were both sentenced on 4 October to four months in prison – a sentence that prompted immediate condemnation by Cole’s family and LGBT campaigners. Cole has a grown-up son and daughter from his previous marriage to a woman, but came out as gay several years ago. The grandfather had an emotion reunion with his family when he arrived at London’s Gatwick airport last night, and told waiting reporters that he was ‘relieved’ to be free.

Cole says that while in jail he slept on a bare concrete floor and was fed one daily serving of boiled vegetables. The British Foreign Office had pressured Moroccan authorities for his release. It is presumed that Nass remains imprisoned.