Prosecutor asks Greek court to annul gay marriages

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek court is considering a prosecutor's request to overturn the country's first gay weddings, celebrated this year despite official warnings they were illegal, a lawyer said on Thursday.

Two couples, one gay and one lesbian, married by a mayor on the Aegean island of Tilos in June, say they took advantage of a failure in Greece's civil law to specify gender in matrimony.

However, a public prosecutor from the neighbouring island of Rhodes took the case to court, saying neither the law nor Greece's constitution referred to same-sex marriage. He has asked the court to rule on the validity of gay marriage.

"We believe the court cannot remain uninfluenced after top officials statements that the weddings were invalid," said the defendants' lawyer, Vassilis Hirdaris.

The Orthodox church, which officially represents more than 90 percent of Greece's 11 million people, condemned the weddings. The Justice Ministry also said they were illegal and that all involved would face charges.

Hirdaris said the gay couples would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if their weddings were found to be invalid. The Greek court is expected to rule by March 2009.

Although many European Union countries passed legislation allowing gay marriage or giving partnership rights to same-sex couples, Greece has not done so.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Catherine Bosley)