Prison sentence in lesbian murder trial

A South African judge sentenced four men to prison for the murder of a lesbian, in a case advocates hailed as a legal milestone for gays and lesbians. The trial and conviction are regarded as landmarks in a country with a high rate of sexual violence, "corrective rape" and hate crimes against the gay population, the International Business Times reported. The four men stoned and stabbed to death Zoliswa Nkonyana, a 19-year-old who lived openly as a lesbian, in Khayelistsa Township in 2006. Two of the men were minors at the time of the crime. Each was sentenced to 18 years in prison. "Life is about choice, and Zoliswa Nkonyana didn't have the freedom to live out her choice. Violence will not go unpunished," said magistrate Raadiyah Wathen at the sentencing. "It is the first case in South Africa where sexual orientation and identity was named and recognized as an aggravating factor in a murder trial," said Marlow Newman-Valentine, deputy director of The Triangle Project, an African gay rights group.