Singapore court dismisses challenges to law that criminalises gay sex: Lawyers

The ruling comes after challenges last year to the colonial-era gay sex law, a thorny issue in the socially-conservative city-state. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons Photo)

Singapore's highest court upheld a law that criminalises sex between men, according to two lawyers involved in the hearings, dismissing three separate appeals that argued that the legislation was unconstitutional.

The ruling comes after challenges last year to the colonial-era gay sex law, a thorny issue in the socially-conservative city-state.

The applicants had argued that Section 377A, a rarely-used law under which a man found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years, is unconstitutional, according to their lawyers and local media reports. The law does not apply to lesbians.