Court dismisses legalisation of same sex

The High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court in Blantyre has dismissed the case in which two people wanted it to declare same sex acts legal.

They are Dutch citizen, Jan Willem Akster, and purported transgender, Jana Gonani, from Mangochi.

The two, who were answering separate homosexual related criminal charges in magistrate courts, wanted the Constitutional Court to interpret as well as to declare the provisions that criminalise the act unconstitutional.

Reacting to the judgement, Gonani’s lawyer Bob Chimkango said: “I have taken this as a position of the law. We will wait until we analyse the actual judgement and if we will advise our client accordingly. The decision to leave it as it is or proceed to appeal the judgement will come from our client.”

Meanwhile, the three-member judge panel that heard the case has since ordered the duo’s criminal matters to continue in the lower court.

One of the provisions in the Penal Code Act which the applicants wanted the Court to declare unconstitutional was Section153 which reads:

153. Unnatural offences

Any person who— (a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or

(b) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or

(c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.