KATSINA, Nigeria(AFP) – Two allegedly homosexual Nigerians who face the death penalty if convicted of sodomy will know their fate on December 6, an Islamic court ruled yesterday, after hearing the final prosecution witness in their case.

Kabir Yusuf, 40, and Usman Sani, 18, were arrested on June 19 in a public toilet a short distance from the Sharia court in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina. Police claim that they confessed to having had sex together, a crime punishable by being stoned to death.

The pair have denied the charge and and asked to be allowed to swear an oath on the Koran that they did not commit sodomy. For its part, the prosecution has been unable to produce a witness who saw the accused engaged in any sex act.

Police Corporal Nuhu Mohammed had testified earlier, saying: “I did not see them having sex when I and my two colleagues arrested them in the toilet but the two men had their trousers unbuckled at the time of arrest.

“The accused will know their fate on December 6 when the court will decide whether to pass judgement based on the evidence before it or to uphold the plea by the accused to be allowed to swear an oath,” he added.

Islamic Sharia law was reintroduced in Katsina State in August 2001, making it one of a dozen mainly Muslim northern states to readopt the code since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999.

Under the interpretation of Muslim legal texts now in force, sexual offences such as adultery, rape and homosexuality are punishable by death.

But, while more than a dozen people have been convicted under these laws, no-one has yet been stoned to death and the law remains controversial.