Updated: 10/10/2013 20:42 | By Channel NewsAsia
Two challenges against Section 377A to be heard in court together
SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal has allowed two challenges against Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises sex between men, to be heard together.
The first case involves Mr Tan Eng Hong, who was caught having oral sex in a shopping mall toilet with another man.
He was originally charged under Section 377A, though the charge was later changed to committing an obscene act in a public place.
Mr Tan was the first to fight the law in 2010, but his challenge was dismissed earlier this month.
Separately, a similar challenge had been mounted by a couple -- Mr Gary Lim Meng Suang and Mr Kenneth Chee Mun-Leon.
Lawyer M Ravi, who represented Mr Tan argued that the move to have the cases heard together is to prevent the same questions of law and constitutional issues from being tried on separate occasions with potentially different results.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the issues in both cases are essentially the same, and should be heard together. - CNA/nd
