Botswana has decriminalised homosexuality, in a ruling delivered at the Southern African High Court in its capital city Gaborone.

The court ruled that Sections 164 and 165 of Botswana’s Penal Code which outlawed ‘carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature’ was unconstitutional.

“We have determined that it is not the business of the law to regulate private consensual sexual encounters” between adults, Judge Michael Leburu said, according to journalist Ryan Brown on Twitter.

The High Court heard the case after a gay man identified only as LM, filed a petition to repeal Section 164.

Judge Leburu also ordered the state to pay LM’s legal cost.