Gay Web Chat Used as Evidence
Amnesty
International, March 12, 2003
[Probably posted earlier]
On 16 January 2003 Wissam Tawfiq Abyad went to meet a
contact he had made on an Internet website for gays. The person he met, in the
Heliopolis district of Cairo, is believed to be a security officer or police
informant. Wissam Tawfiq Abyad was detained and charged with “habitual
debauchery”. Electronic conversations which they had exchanged over the
Internet in private were used as evidence against him.
On 17 February 2003 a court of appeals in Cairo upheld
the sentence of 15 months’ imprisonment of Wissam Tawfiq Abyad. AI considers
him to be a prisoner of conscience detained solely for his perceived or actual
sexual orientation.
During the examination of Egypt’s report to the UN
Human Rights Committee in October 2002, the Egyptian delegation stated that in
Egypt “homosexuality was not a criminal offence in itself”. However,
ongoing trials and imprisonment of people solely for their perceived or actual
sexual orientation demonstrate that charges of “habitual debauchery”
continue to be used to criminalize consensual homosexual relations in private.
Over the past year, there have been several cases of
alleged gays who have been detained and tried after having agreed to meet
people contacted through the Internet who turned out to be security officers
or police informants. Zaki Sayid Zaki ‘Abd al-Malak was detained in such
circumstances on 25 January 2002 in Cairo. On 7 February he was sentenced to
three years’ imprisonment for “habitual debauchery”. This sentence was
upheld on appeal. He was reportedly ill-treated in detention.
Please write calling for the immediate and unconditional
release of Wissam Tawfiq Abyad and Zaki Sayid Zaki ‘Abd al-Malak and others
imprisoned solely on the grounds of their actual or perceived sexual
orientation.
Send appeals to: His Excellency, President Mohammad Hosni
Mubarak, ‘Abedine Palace, Cairo, Egypt. Fax: + 202 390 1998. E-mail: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg
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