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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 says. The organisation has urged the Egyptian authorities to conduct a fair review of all sentences handed down in such cases, and to free from prison anyone convicted solely for private, consensual conduct among adults.

Egypt: End 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.

Human Rights Watch urged the Egyptian authorities to conduct a fair
review of all sentences handed down in such cases, and to free from
prison anyone convicted solely for private, consensual conduct among
adults.

"For two years now, the Egyptian authorities have conducted an on-going
campaign of harassment against suspected homosexuals," said Joe Stork,
Washington director of the Middle East and North Africa division of
Human Rights Watch. "The police are raiding private homes and using the
Internet to entrap men on trumped-up charges of 'debauchery.' People
looking for support and community find a prison cell instead."

On February 17, 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 "Raoul," whom he had met through the gay
personals-advertisements site www.gaydar.com. Undercover police and
informants have used the nickname "Raoul" in several other cases to
entrap suspected homosexual men.

The Heliopolis Court of Misdemeanors convicted Abyad on January 20 on
charges of the "habitual practice of debauchery [fujur]" under Article
9(c) of Law 10/1961 on the Combating of Prostitution, a charge commonly
used in Egypt against private, consensual homosexual conduct. The court
also convicted him of advertising "against public morals" under Article
178 of the Penal Code; and "inciting passers-by" on a "public road or
traveled or frequented place. . . to commit indecent acts [fisq]" under
Article 269 of the Penal Code-both referring to his having placed a
personals advertisement on the Internet site. These charges are commonly
used to criminalize the expression of homosexual identity.

Many recent cases of Internet entrapment of suspected homosexuals have
led to convictions in the first instance that were later reversed on
appeal. Human Rights Watch is concerned that the appeals court's
decision in the Abyad case may signal increasing harshness in the
application of the law.

Human Rights Watch is also concerned by the continuing imprisonment of
Zaki Saad Zaki Abd al-Malak, a 23-year-old resident of Ismailia who was
arrested under similar circumstances over a year ago. In January 2002,
after corresponding with a man through an MSN chatroom, Malak came to
Cairo. On January 25, at their prearranged meeting place on a street in
the Mohandiseen district, Vice Squad officers arrested Malak. He told
human rights activists that he was beaten daily by police during two
weeks of detention in the Agouza Police Station. At one meeting with his
lawyer he still had dried blood crusting his face.

On February 7, 2002, Malak was sentenced to three years' imprisonment,
followed by three years' supervision, under the same three charges used
against Wissam Abyad. 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.

In a separate hearing, scheduled for February 23, 2003, a court of
appeals will rule in the case of twelve men sentenced to three years'
imprisonment on the charge of "habitual practice of debauchery" in
November 2002. All were arrested on August 20, 2002, when police raided
what they described as a gay party in an apartment in Cairo's
Mohandiseen district. Ten of the men were sentenced for practicing
consensual, non-commercial sex with male adults. Although two of the men
confessed to having practiced commercial sex, Judge Mohieddin Atrees
stressed in his verdict that homosexual conduct--"debauchery"--was a
criminal offense even in the absence of financial gain.

In another case, six men were arrested in January 2003 in a private
apartment in Port Said and charged with the "habitual practice of
debauchery." All six were subjected to forensic medical examinations
which found them "used," and were sentenced approximately two weeks ago
to six months' imprisonment. An appeals hearing in the case will be held
on February 26.

Egypt's most notorious "gay trial," of fifty-two men arrested at the
Queen Boat discotheque in May 2001, is also drawing to a close. In
November 2001, after a process marked by lurid publicity in the
state-controlled press, twenty-three of the men were convicted and given
sentences of between one and five years' imprisonment. Their case was
heard before an Emergency State Security Court, whose verdicts under
Egypt's emergency legislation allow no ordinary appeal. President Hosni
Mubarak, who as military governor must review all verdicts of this
court, later cancelled innocent and guilty verdicts alike for fifty of
the Queen Boat defendants, resulting in a retrial of these cases before
an ordinary court. That court has announced it will hand down its
decision on March 15.

"This routine of harassment and persecution has gone on far too long,"
Stork said. "The authorities should halt such arrests and stop the
criminalization of consensual private sexual relations."

Fot more information on Human Rights Watch's work on Egypt, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/mideast/egypt.php