Jul 17, 2018

Lebanese activists have celebrated a court ruling they say paves the way towards decriminalising homosexuality in the small Middle Eastern country.

On Thursday, a Lebanese appeals court upheld the 2017 acquittal of nine people prosecuted over being gay.

A lower court had found in January that year that their homosexuality was "a practice of their fundamental rights".

Under a controversial article of the Lebanese penal code, sexual relations "against nature" are outlawed and punishable by up to one year in prison.

On Thursday, the Mount Lebanon appeals court found that