Egypt Sentences 5 Men for Homosexuality

[swimmernsecretsea]

Egypt Sentences 5 Men for Homosexuality

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

(04-09) 13:37 PDT CAIRO, Egypt (AP) --

An Egyptian court convicted five men Wednesday on charges of homosexual behavior and sentenced them to three years in prison, officials said.

Defense lawyer, Adel Ramadan, said the judge found the men guilty of the "habitual practice of debauchery" — a term used in the Egyptian legal system to denote consensual homosexual acts.

The convictions were confirmed by a judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Homosexuality is not explicitly referred to in Egypt's legal code, but a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery are applied to homosexuals in this conservative country.

The five men were arrested in what human rights groups describe as a crackdown on people with the AIDS virus, using the debauchery charges as a means to prosecute them.

Four of the five men tested HIV-positive after all were forced to undergo blood tests in custody, Human Rights Watch says. The New York-based rights group issued a statement Tuesday signed by more than 100 other organizations around the world condemning the prosecutions.

Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the five men were abused and tortured over the past several months to "extract confessions" from them.

Full story here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/09/international/i131408D40.DTL&tsp=1

[AlinPA]

1. Sounds like something that would be in the republican platform at their convention.

[UndertheOcean]

2. Homosexuality is a crime ????????????????????

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[TheWraith]

4. Yes and no.

There's no actual law in Egypt which says homosexuality is a crime. However, Egyptian police sometimes conduct raids and charge the arrestees with vague crimes such as "contempt of religion" and "moral depravity." Some of these prosecutions fall apart, some get the victims sentenced to several years in prison, such as this one.

[UndertheOcean]

3. And Egypt is supposed to be a somewhat "liberal" Arab state

As an Arab It sadly seems my people are still in the medieval era

[Moloch]

5. Egypt is "liberal"?

That country has a long history of human rights abuses in general and abuse of gays in particular. Is Egypt considered liberal in the Arab world? The best treatment of gay people in the Arab world was in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.... now the religious militias execute gays on the spot. Yet another consequence of our "liberation" of that country.

[UndertheOcean]

6. Compared to other Arab countries , yes it was somewhat .

Thats a depressing thought I guess.

The only country more liberal is Lebanon , which was almost destroyed by the viscous civil war.

[DarkTirade]

10. Up until a few years ago it was still a crime in many states here

although not a capital one. And I wouldn't be surprised if it still is in a few european countries too.

So it's not just one group of people enacting laws like that.

[Iggo]

7. Egypt is our friend, right?

What a world.

[UndertheOcean]

8. Like Iraq was our "friend" while it was gassing the kurds and attacking Iran

Since it is appeasing Israel it is our "friend"

[and-justice-for-all]

11. So is Saudi Arabia...nt

[Tektonik]

9. There's another country I'll never visit.

:puke:

[Moloch]

12. There should be an international boycott.

I'd bet that tourism is a major part of Egypt's economy and the lack of basic human rights shown to its gay citizens is reprehensible.. and a large segment of the US and European populations would agree.