By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The Constitutional Court will review whether the military law banning homosexuality is constitutional.
A military court recently filed a petition with the court to examine the constitutionality of the law which it claims infringes on the right to equality, the right to choose sexuality, and freedom of privacy, according to the Constitutional Court Sunday.
It is the first time for a military court to request a review of the constitutionality of the law, although the Constitutional Court examined the law in 2002 following an individual petition.
A clause in the military law stipulates that males who have sex with another male or commit sexual harassment can be jailed for up to a year.
The military court said it is unclear whether the clause of sex between soldiers means sex by force or sex by mutual agreement. It said it is also ambiguous as to whether it includes only harassment between male soldiers, or between females and between a male and female.
``Due to the ambiguousness, it is difficult to conclude whether a sexual act violates the law or not. It is also over-regulation to slap a jail term on sexual intercourse by mutual agreement. If the law is applied only to homosexuality, it infringes on the right to equality and the right to choose sexuality,'' the court said.
The court asked the Constitutional Court to review the law and suspended its trial of a 26-year-old sergeant who was indicted for violating the law. He was charged for sexually harassing a soldier.
In a 2002 case which dealt with the sexual harassment part of the law, the Constitutional Court ruled it constitutional, saying the law does not violate the principle of clarification because it is impossible to list all types of sexual harassment one by one.
Between 2004 and 2007, military courts had 176 cases where the law was applied. Four of them were sexual relations by mutual agreement, while the rest were by force.