File Photo The highest court in Singapore has upheld a Colonial-era law criminalizing gay sex. The Court of Appeal has rejected cases brought by three men, who said the law which penalises sex between men with jail terms infringes their human rights under Singapore’s constitution. "Whilst we understand the deeply-held personal feelings of the appellants, there is nothing that this court can do to assist them. Their remedy lies, if at all, in the legislative sphere," the judgement reads. A human rights lawyer who acted for one of the men who brought the case, M Ravi, says the judgement is a step backwards for human rights in Singapore. “It appears that this absurd and discriminatory law criminalises the core aspect of an individual's identity, in this case, homosexual men. "This unequal treatment in the law is based on hatred for hatred's sake, and discrimination for discrimination's sake, and nothing else.” The maximum penalty for gay sex, or 'gross indecency', is two years’ jail.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 30th October 2014 - 8:25am