A homosexual couple caught kissing in front of the Colosseum will face trial for public indecency, their lawyer said on Tuesday.
According to police, the two had not just been kissing but were engaged in oral sex.
They dismissed claims of discrimination, saying that their ''blatant and unequivocal act of obscenity'' would have led to arrest whether the couple concerned had been gay or heterosexual.
Homosexual rights association Arcigay said that the two men, aged 36 and 28, had been hauled away in July 2007 after they ''stopped to admire the Colosseum and kissed and cuddled each other, like thousands of heterosexual couples do every day when they pass that monument''.
Arcigay lawyer Michele Stoppello will represent the two when they go on trial in February.
The lawyer said the Rome prosecutor had based his case only on the police report, turning down a request to examine security surveillance videos of the Colosseum area.
According to the prosecutor, digging up the videos would have been too complicated and not worth the effort.
Stoppello said he was convinced the videos would have proven his clients' innocence. photo: gay couples kiss near Colosseum to protest arrest of couple
