Gay Syrian teenager Jojo Jako Yakob has pleaded with officials in Scotland to reverse a deportation order and spare him the certain death he believes he will face if he returns to his country, reports the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

"His only crime was to be gay. For that he was half-drowned, brutally beaten and then fell into a coma. He survived, escaped from jail, fled his country and eventually arrived, exhausted and bedraggled, here in Scotland. And now the Government wants to send him back," the newspaper explains.

Gay rights activists demanded that gay citizens such as Yakob, who were facing clear persecution in their homeland, should be granted asylum. But a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy responded by describing homosexuality as a "disease", which the country sought to "treat".

The 19-year-old is now to embark on a landmark legal challenge in order to reverse the deportation order so he can spend the rest of his life in Scotland.

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