Costa Rica Courts Say “NO” to Conjugal Visits

Homosexual inmates in Costa Rica do not have the right to conjugal visits, the nation’s highest court has ruled in a case that could be revisited if Congress passes a bill legalizing gay marriage, newspapers reported.

The Constitutional Tribunal rejected a former inmate’s appeal in a lawsuit against prison authorities who suddenly stopped his weekly conjugal visits to his partner, a current inmate he met when both served time in the same jail.

The high court’s brief ruling said the prison authorities’ decision “falls within the scope of their rights, duties and powers.”

The court, however, is still debating another appeal in a similar case that challenges prison rules restricting conjugal visits to heterosexual couples as violating the basic right to sexual freedom of all inmates, including homosexuals.