Judiciary sources expects the appeal of the recent decision concerning same sex persons

In its issue of Saturday, An Nahar newspaper brought to light the decision by the Single Criminal Court Judge in Matn, Rabih Maaluf, who repealed the pursuit of same sex or transsexual defendants according to Article 534 of the Penal Code (c.f: http://bit.ly/2kilKZn). In this respect, a senior judiciary source explained to An Nahar that in the case of concurrence on a certain jurisprudence by a number of courts, the decision becomes a moral force. However, the same sources said, from the legal perspective, jurisprudence shall be applied to a case presented before a judge or bench in the absence of an explicit legal text. In the presence of an explicit text, like in ‘homosexuality’ (observed by the Lebanese law as a punishable crime), it cannot be repealed or abolished, otherwise, it takes over the role of the legislator (exclusively restricted to the Parliament), and hence infringes on the principle of separation of powers, the sources added. On the other hand, the explanatory argument of a verdict is not legal diligence as it contradicts with the legal text, thus considered ‘erroneous’ and could be appealed, the sources concluded. Other legal circles supported the argument indicating that jurisprudence becomes a moral force if agreed by many courts, pointing out that the "Lebanese law is clear in criminalizing any relationship against “natural law”. They recalled the two rulings preceding the last decision, one of which was overruled by the Court of Appeal. (An Nahar, February 4, 2017)