A MALAWI court on Tuesday convicted a gay couple who staged an illegal same-sex wedding of violating "the order of nature", which could land them with up to 14 years in prison.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were arrested on December 28 following a symbolic wedding and have been in jail ever since.

Homesexuality is illegal in Malawi and in several other African countries.

"The state has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the two were married," Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said.

The judge convicted both men of engaging in gay sex which he said was "against the order of nature."

Malawi's government is coming under pressure from Western donors over the issue. For a poor country, 40% of whose development budget depends on donors, that is no mean threat.

The ‘guilty’ verdict has drawn condemnation from London, where the prominent gay rights activist Peter Tatchell described it as “outrageous”.

By Tuesday, 67 British MPs had added their signatures to a House of Commons Early Day Motion, condemning the pair’s arrest and prosecution.

Tatchell said: “While Steven and Tiwonge freely confirmed their love for each other, there was no credible evidence that they had committed any illegal homosexual acts.

"The law under which they were convicted is a discriminatory law that only applies to same-sex relations. It is unconstitutional. Article 20 of Malawi's constitution guarantees equality and non-discrimination. The law in Malawi is not supposed to discriminate.”

Tatchell, who once famously tried to make a citizen’s arrest on gay critic President Robert Mugabe, said Malawi's anti-gay laws were “devised in London in the nineteenth century and imposed on the people of Malawi by the British colonisers and their army of occupation.”

He added: "With so much hatred and violence in the world, it is bizarre that any court would criminalise two people for loving each other.”

By AP