Internet Entrapment, Homosexual Prosecutions
(New York, February 21, 2003) — A February 17 appeals court ruling in Egypt may signal an increasingly harsh campaign of entrapment, arrest and conviction of men solely on the basis of alleged consensual homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch said today. Earlier Report on Gays in Egypt
Egypt: Homosexual Prosecutions Overturned
Internet Arrests, Harassments Continue(New York, July 22, 2003) -- The acquittal by a Cairo appeals
court of eleven men earlier convicted of consensual homosexual
conduct is a step forward, but arrests and harassment of men who
have sex with men continue in Egypt, Human Rights Watch said
today. The appeals court overturned the convictions on July 20."Men remain imprisoned in Egypt for private acts, in a continuing
crackdown which violates international law," said Scott Long, a
researcher for Human Rights Watch. "What is needed is to repeal
the provisions of a law which invite repressive enforcement."The men were among sixteen who had been charged in February 2003,
when police tapped the phone of a private apartment in the Giza
district of greater Cairo after an informer reported that the
owner was visited by other men. Police arrested the men whose
recorded conversations suggested that they had engaged in
homosexual acts. They were charged with the "habitual practice of
debauchery," punishable by up to three years' imprisonment under
Law 10/1961."Debauchery" [fujur] in the law is understood to criminalize
consensual, non-commercial homosexual sex.The men were tortured in detention. One told Human Rights Watch
that they were held in isolation for fifteen days in the women's
section of the Giza police station; there, guards beat them three
times daily, at every change of shift.Thirteen men eventually appeared at trial; three more in hiding
were tried in absentia. Only two were acquitted by the trial
court April 17, 2003; the rest received sentences of from one to
three and a half years' imprisonment.While overturning the sentences of the eleven men who appealed,
Judge Mo'azer al-Marsary said, "We are so disgusted with you, we
can't even look at you. What you did is a major sin, but
unfortunately the case has procedural errors and the court has to
acquit all of you.""We welcome the acquittals," said Long, "but judges have a duty
to affirm the rights of the accused rather than engaging in
prejudicial rhetoric and hiding behind technicalities."Activists in Egypt report that official solicitation and arrests
of suspected gay men over the Internet have continued in recent
months. Appeals courts have a record of overturning "debauchery"
convictions in Egypt, based on flimsy evidence or official
solicitation.However, some appeals fail. Human Rights Watch is concerned by
the continuing imprisonment of Zaki Saad Zaki Abd al-Malak, a 23-
year-old resident of Ismailia who was solicited by police over
the Internet in January 2002. After corresponding with a man
through an MSN chatroom, Malak came to Cairo to meet him; at
their prearranged meeting place, Vice Squad officers arrested
him. He told human rights activists that police beat him daily
during two weeks of detention in the Agouza Police Station. At
one meeting with his lawyer, dried blood still crusted his face.On February 7, 2002, Malak was convicted of the "habitual
practice of debauchery," as well as advertising "against public
morals" and "inciting passers-by . to commit indecent acts." He
was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, followed by three
years' police supervision. The sentence was upheld on appeal. A
further appeal is pending before the Cassation Court, Egypt's
highest judicial review body. Meanwhile, Malak is being held in
Borg al-Arab prison near Alexandria.On February 17, 2003, a Cairo appeals court upheld a penal
sentence against Wissam Toufic Abyad, a 26-year-old Lebanese
citizen. Police arrested Abyad on January 16 in Cairo's
Heliopolis district after he had arranged to meet with a "Raoul,"
whom he had met through a gay personals-advertisement site on the
Internet. Undercover police and informants have used the nickname
"Raoul" in several other cases to solicit suspected homosexual
men.The Heliopolis Court of Misdemeanors sentenced Abyad on January
20 to one year and three months' imprisonment, under the same
three charges used against Zaki Saad Zaki Abd al-Malak. Abyad
remains imprisoned, and is also appealing to the Cassation Court."It is time to end the arrest and torture of men suspected of
homosexual conduct in Egypt," said Long.
