Egypt Prepares to Retry 50 Suspected Gays
Gay.com /
PlanetOut.com Network, June 25, 2002
SUMMARY: Next week Egypt will retry 50 of the 52 suspected gay men
arrested last year on a floating nightclub and charged with
"debauchery."
Next week the Egyptian government will retry 50 of the 52 suspected gay men
arrested last year on a floating nightclub and charged with
"debauchery," the state-controlled daily Al Ahram reported on
Sunday.
The group of defendants will include the 29 who were acquitted in the
original trial, which ended last November. The other 21 had been sentenced to
prison terms, but their sentences were thrown out last month.
"We see now our worst suspicions confirmed," said Scott Long,
program director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commisssion
(IGLHRC). "President Mubarak’s government made a show of leniency last
month, releasing the convicted defendants on bail. Now it is cracking down
again—and their professions of mercy are revealed as a mockery."
The trial is scheduled for July 2 in a misdemeanor court. Last year’s
trial was heard in an emergency state security court, where rulings must be
approved by President Hosni Mubarak and cannot be appealed.
Two of the original 52 men had their sentences approved by the president
last month.
IGLHRC and other human rights groups around the world continue to denounce
ongoing arrests and torture of gay men by the Egyptian police. Homosexuality,
regarded as taboo in the culture, is not expressly forbidden by law.
Last month a 19-year-old man was arrested after arranging in a Gay.com chat
room to meet with a correspondent who turned out to be a policeman. He was
sentenced to three years in prison and reportedly subjected to torture. His
court appeal is scheduled for Wednesday.
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