Lebanese activists have celebrated a court ruling they say paves the way towards decriminalising homosexuality in the small Middle Eastern country.

On Thursday, a Lebanese appeals court upheld the 2017 acquittal of nine people prosecuted over being gay. A lower court found last January that homosexuality was "a practice of their fundamental rights".

Under a controversial article of the Lebanese penal code, sexual relations "against nature" are outlawed and punishable by up to one year in prison.

On Thursday, the Mount Lebanon appeals court found that, with this article, "legislators had not intended to criminalise homosexuality but rather offence to public morals".

The ruling means that "homosexual relations are not a crime, as long as they are between two adults and do not occur in a public space", said Karim Nammour, a lawyer and member of non-governmental advocacy organisation Legal Agenda.

The verdict was the fifth of its kind, Nammour said on Tuesday, but the first by such a high-ranking court.

"The appeals court has a certain authority... It's higher in the hierarchy," he said. Read more via New Arab