Three Lebanese men have been fined by a Berlin court for allegedly attempting to force a 15-year-old relative into a straight marriage.

The father of then 15-year-old Nasser El-Ahmed beat him, poured boiling water on him and threatened to ram a knife into his throat after he came out.

The spokesman for the State Court Tobias Kaehne said on Thursday that the father and the two uncles of the boy were fined 1,350 euros (£960), and that they could face jail if the fines go unpaid.

One of the uncles also doused him in petrol and threatened to set him on fire.

The associated press reports that the complaint details that in 2012, the men took the boy, who is now 18-years-old, in a car and tried to drive him to Turkey.

After being stopped at the Romania-Bulgaria border, the boy was returned to Germany.

The boy told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that he had come out as gay, and as a result his father had decided to try and force him to marry a woman.

He said he hoped his case would draw attention to issues faced by gay Muslim men.