Last edited: February 13, 2005


Egyptian Court Reduces Gay Sex Sentences

Gay.com U.K., June 5, 2003

An appeals court in Egypt has reduced the sentences of four men convicted of charges stemming from a May 2001 raid on a Nile boat restaurant.

The four were among 52 men arrested in a May 2001 police raid on a Nile boat restaurant on suspicion they had taken part in a gay sex party. 29 were acquitted, and a further 16 appealed and were released pending the hearing.

Twelve men, who had also been initially sentenced to three years imprisonment, lost their appeals on Wednesday because they did not attend the hearing. Another five did not appear at the hearing and will be retried if arrested.

Another two men had been sentenced to five and three years respectively on charges of contempt of religion and misinterpreting the Islamic holy book, the Qur’an.

Homosexuality is met with zero tolerance in Egypt. While not explicitly referred to in the country’s laws, a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and public morality are punishable by jail terms and used to persecute gay men.


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