Letter: Injustice in Cairo
New York Times,
February 9, 2002
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Email: letters@nytimes.com
Re: "Belated Justice in Egypt" (editorial, Feb. 8):
You say "nothing has defamed Egypt’s image more in recent
months" than the wrongful prosecution and imprisonment of the human
rights advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim, whose conviction has now been overturned
by a Cairo appeals court. I would argue that equally defaming are the arrests
of 52 men in Cairo last year simply for being gay.
In November, 23 of these men were sentenced to jail terms from one to five
years, and the two main defendants were sentenced to five and three years’
hard labor.
Thanks to international pressure, justice prevailed, and Mr. Ibrahim has
been released, pending a retrial. Regrettably, the same cannot be said for the
men in Cairo.
- Matthew Tumminello, New York
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