Reports Suggest More Arrests in Egypt
Planet Out,
November 2, 2001
http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?2001/11/02/4
By Jon ben Asher, 365Gay.com
LONDON—Reports coming out of Egypt claim the
government has arrested several dozen gay men.
Egyptian gay rights site GayEgypt.com
says it has not been able to confirm the arrests but reports that it has
received information that the men were detained by police in the affluent
Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, not far from Cairo’s international airport. It
says additional arrests have been made near the pyramids.
British magazine Gay Times reports it has also received information of the
arrests.
In addition, GayEgypt.com says there
has been an intensification of arrests of Egyptians placing personal ads on
the Internet.
It says that it believes the government is attempting to keep the arrests
quiet following the international outcry which followed the arrests of 52 men
in May when police raided a gay club on a Nile riverboat.
The Web site, the largest site aimed at gay Egyptians, says it believes the
families of those most recently arrested may be afraid to talk to reporters.
Following the May arrests, relatives of those accused of "defaming
Islam" were victimized after names and addresses were published in the
media.
GayEgypt.com is advising its readers
to avoid always logging on from the same location out of concern the
government is monitoring the ISPs of users.
It is also urging gays and lesbians around the world to boycott the
country.
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