Three convicted of stirring up anti–gay hatred

Three Muslim men have become the first people in Britain to be convicted of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation after they handed out a leaflet calling for gay people to be executed.

Entitled The Death Penalty?, it showed an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose and quoted Islamic texts that said capital punishment was the only way to rid society of homosexuality.

At Derby Crown Court, Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed were convicted by a jury of distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation – the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010. They will be sentenced next month. Two other men were cleared of the same offence.