U.K. Official: Don't Cut Aid for Malawi

U.K. Minister for International Development Alan Duncan has cautioned against withholding financial aid for Malawi after a judge sentenced a gay couple in the country to 14 years in prison on Thursday.

"The government of Malawi has signed up to international treaties on human rights," Duncan wrote in an op-ed to Pink News. "Indeed the country's constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination against any of its citizens. ... But we must be wary of calls to use aid money as a political weapon."

The two men, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, received lengthy prison sentences after they held a ceremony celebrating their engagement. According to the BBC, Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa told the couple, "I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example."

Duncan, who is gay, wrote that the United Kingdom's aid program is giving approximately $114 million to the impoverished East African country this year. "They face a challenge just to survive and we have a moral obligation to help them in their daily battle against hunger, disease and despair," he wrote.

Read the op-ed here.