Egypt Imprisons Gay Men For "Debauchery"

(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.

Along with three years in prison, the men were sentenced to an additional three years of police supervision.

Ramadan said the defendants were shocked by their convictions.

"Two of them cried, screamed and shrieked," Ramadan said. He said the others "remained silent, but I saw anger in their eyes for the injustice they have been exposed to."

Ramadan said he appealed the verdict to Egypt's Court of Cassation, the country's highest appellate court.

Dozens of human rights groups have criticized this trial and other similar ones as being driven by ignorance and fear of AIDS. They have warned that the convictions could undermine AIDS prevention in Egypt.

The five convicted Wednesday were among 12 people arrested in a sweep that began in October, when police arrested a man during an altercation with another man on a Cairo street, Human Rights Watch said.

After one of the men said he was HIV-positive, authorities opened investigations into other men whose names or contact information were uncovered in interrogations of the first group of men, Human Rights Watch said.

Egyptian police have denied making any arrests because of a person's HIV condition.

In mid-January, four other HIV-positive men from the group of 12 were sentenced to one-year prison terms on similar charges of debauchery. Three others from the 12 were not prosecuted, Human Rights Watch said.

[azcagirl]

Do the authorities there have nothing better to do then torture people for being gay? Seriously everybody knows about the Aids pandemic if those people decide to have any unprotected s*x with anyone they are unsure about that is the personal risk that they take. It should be up to the individual not the authorities to run their s*x lives.

[honestabe8]

GWno1 must really be into that punishment thing. Does your god have leather and whips?

[honestabe8]

GWno1 must really be into that punishment thing. Does your god have leather and whips?

[honestabe8]

GWno1: Shove your judgement day and your reheated hebrew mythology up your arse. Frigging moron.

[honestabe8]

GWno1 wants to see Ron Jeremy have ***? Hmmm...curious.

[lance453]

To payasyougo:
It%u2019s so funny how people try to compare irrelevant things and pretend that they are the same thing. I highly doubt that Zoophiles come out of the womb lusting for animals. I think their sexual lust for animals goes along the lines of a sexual fetish, but I am no expert there. As for pedophiles, most are heterosexual even the ones who molest boys. Most studies have shown that molesters tend to be a family member, relative, or family friend. Usually the boys are molested by a male who is in a heterosexual relationship. You are also ignoring the far greater number of girls who get molested or raped. What about them? Since the majority of pedophiles are %u201Cstraight%u201D males, I guess that is ok to you because it will make sure that girl%u2019s grows up straight. Maybe we should do that with all children, make females molest little boys so they grow up straight too. You got to get them before the *** do!
Yeah, just because a lot of people are doing it, AKA religion & bigotry, doesn%u2019t make it right. You can reserve your own right to believe what you want to and hate who you want to but don%u2019t be fooled into thinking that you yourself won%u2019t one day feel the same discrimination you spew out. If you are afraid for the safety of your children, then don%u2019t trust them with your family, friends, or religious figures. The *** are the last ones to be concerned about.

[dog7771]

were they watching movies at the Al-MArriott? For Shame!

[rf35]

Go vote for your liberal antireligous candidate and when its judgement day I will watch god do to you what u say comes naturally mrs liberal
Posted by GWno1

If your god is into butt-s-e-x, I''m glad I''m not a Christian.

[payasyougo]

"From the studies I''ve read, it appears most knew when they were little kids that they had these tendencies, so it''s almost certainly hardwired into the physiology for most of them."
--------------------------------------------

The same could be said of zoophiles - the affinity or sexual attraction by a human to an animal.

I hold the same disgust and disdain toward both sets of behaviors.

Studies have also shown that molested boys have an extremely high probability to become molesters themselves. This is not a genetic predisposition rather, this is propagation of a bad behavior. And this could explain the growing number of homosexuals in the community.

Just because a lot of people are doing it does not make it right. And I don''t have to accept the behavior. I won%u2019t. Ever. Legally, I can%u2019t do anything about it.

Just keep them out of positions where they might teach the behaviors to my children.

[pronto9]

Let them bugger each other in peace.