Egypt jails five 'homosexuals' for three years

According to HRW, at least 17 Egyptian men have been jailed since October 2007 “in a spreading hunt for people suspected of being HIV-positive.”

Many of the men allege they were beaten and abused, while police would arrest others whose contact details were found on detainees’ mobile phones.

The crimes of the Mubarak dictatorship multiply, but resistance is fierce.

In other news, however, a prominent pro-democracy activist has been arrested as the government seeks to quash the uprising in the northern city of Mahalla. Mubarak must hope that the desire for equality and freedom does not spread to Cairo.

A Cairo court on Wednesday jailed five men, four of them HIV positive, for three years on charges of “debauchery” linked to homosexuality, the latest example of what rights groups call a “witch hunt.”

The men were arrested three weeks ago in a central Cairo restaurant following an argument after which a client accused them of practising homosexuality, in what rights groups say is becoming a familiar pattern of persecution.

A police doctor carried out anal inspections on the men “which confirmed their homosexuality,” the court official said. Human Rights Watch said such examinations constitute torture and are medically spurious.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.

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