Unnatural acts

The Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela has invalidated a provision of the country's military code that criminalized acts against nature, finding the term too vague. CNN reports:

The Constitutional Chamber of the highest court annulled, at the request of the ombudsman, Alfredo Ruiz, the provision contained " for lacking sufficient clarity and legal precision with regard to the conduct that it sought to sanction," the TSJ said in a press release.

Likewise, it said that the norm imposed a sentence of 1 to 3 years in prison on the military who committed "unnatural sexual acts", without defining what should be understood by such acts, when constitutional principles require that the description of the crimes be clear and precise to avoid investigations and sanctions "apart from those that the legislator wanted to penalize."

The March 16, 2023 decision in Judgment No. 0128, Dkt. No. 23-0288, can be found here.