Guardian: Muslim group's anti-gay leaflet was hate crime

Derby:

Five men on trial over leaflet calling for gay people to face death penalty, in first prosecution of its kind under new law.

to be given the death sentence, a court has heard.

The pamphlet was entitled The Death Penalty? and showed an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose. It said sodomy was a sin that led to hell, that it used to be punished by hanging, and that people practising and allowing homosexuality would suffer, the court was told.

Five men – Ihjaz Ali, 42, Mehboob Hussain, 45, Umar Javed, 38, Razwan Javed, 27, and Kabir Ahmed, 28, all of Derby – are alleged to have handed out the document outside and near the Jamia mosque in in the city in July 2010, and to have put it through people's letterboxes in the neighbourhood.

They are accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, in the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010. They deny the charges.

Opening the case at Derby crown court, the prosecutor, Bobbie Cheema, said the case was an example of a hate crime.

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