HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government has backed down in a legal battle to keep a law that makes gay sex under the age of 21 punishable by life imprisonment, a news report said Monday. The government has decided not to appeal against a landmark ruling which said the law banning gay sex for anyone under the age of 21 was unconstitutional, the South China Morning Post reported.A 20-year-old gay man, William Leung, successfully challenged in the High Court a law which gave the courts the power to hand out a maximum sentence of life for buggery with or by a man aged under 21.
The 2005 ruling was upheld by Hong Kong's Appeal Court last month but the government had the option of going to the territory's top court, the Court of Final Appeal, to contest the decision.
However, the government has decided not to lodge a further appeal, a move which will make its law against gay sex legally invalid, the newspaper reported.
Gay rights campaigners say the law put Hong Kong in the same category as jurisdictions such as Bangladesh and India which also have laws carrying a maximum life jail term for under-age gay sex.
Leung told the newspaper: "When you have a law that says committing certain things can put you in jail for life, it must be something really bad.
"It has to be something like serial murder or trafficking arms in huge quantities ... (not) being gay and having a fulfilling gay relationship."
from The Raw Story
No comments:
Post a Comment