Martinique: Blogger arrested for death threats against gays

The Advocate online picks up on a sketchy AP story about the arrest of a French man in the Caribbean island of Martinique on charges of "incitement of murder" for messages he posted on a blog calling for the death of gays as well as a number of local political leaders and entertainment figures who he also alleged of being gay.

The 38 year old was arrested after authorities traced back the computer's IP address to an Atlanta home according to the Caribbean Press Agency. The man acknowledged that he had posted the threats from the Atlanta location during a vacation with relatives in the United States and now faces up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 45,000 Euros if found guilty. Authorities have yet to release the name of the man.

Though authorities say they are still at a loss to understand the reason behind the threats, the Caribbean Press Agency article reveals that the man always posted under the monicker of "Lieutenant Terrorist," a known local dance-hall reggeae performer. As for the actual threats, a headline above the various names and images of the local personalities read: “Mort au Batty boys, mort sans exception..." ("Death to gays, death without exception"), which certainly also betrays an affinity to slang terms used by some homophobic Jamaican dancehall reggae singers.

In an earlier article, Lieutenant Terrorist distanced himself from the blog site and expressed surprise and sorrow that he was in any way mentioned in the blog but called back moments after being first contacted to ask the reporter not to print his comments. In a YouTube interview he says that he does not even have access to the internet and accuses the blogger of defamation against his character.

The blog has since been shut down by the host company. A Google Blog and Google French Blog search failed to unearth the offending site.

All in all it seems like a man using an anonymous blog to vent the homophobic hatred and posturing he learned from dancehall reggae culture than someone intent on carrying out the death threats but you never know.