Father who kidnapped gay son to cure his homosexuality is fined £1,000

A father who kidnapped his 18-year-old gay son and tried to drive him to their native Lebanon so he could marry him off and 'cure' his homosexuality has been fined £1,000.
Nasser El-A. came out as gay at the age of 15 but his Muslim family considered it an affront on their faith and said it was unacceptable.

His relatives tried to force him into a marriage to 'put him back on the right path' - and led by Nasser's father, later kidnapped him with the intention of taking him back to Lebanon.

Today the teenager's father and two uncles stood trial at Berlin Criminal Court and escaped with a fine of £1,000 each as punishment.When he first told his family about his sexuality in 2012, he was threatened with shocking violence.
His uncle covered him in petrol and threatened to set him alight and later poured boiling water all over him.
Speaking to Tagesspiegel, he said:

'I'm not someone who hides away. I don't want to suppress my sexuality. My father said he would personally ram a knife into my throat.

Nasser ran away from home rather than face the abuse, but he wasn’t sure where to go. The lack of accommodation or shelter for vulnerable young men was another important point he wanted to highlight with his case.

He eventually found refuge with an organisation called Papatya, which is aimed at vulnerable girls and young women.

When he was later invited home by his mother, while his father was out at work, he returned to the family home only to be kidnapped.

The family wanted to take him back to Lebanon in order to force him into marriage, but were luckily stopped by authorities on the Romanian-Bulgarian border and brought back to Berlin.