Posted on 04/09/2008 4:30:55 PM PDT by SmithL
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An Egyptian court convicted five men Wednesday on charges of homosexual behavior and sentenced them to three years in prison, officials said.
Defense lawyer, Adel Ramadan, said the judge found the men guilty of the "habitual practice of debauchery" — a term used in the Egyptian legal system to denote consensual homosexual acts.
The convictions were confirmed by a judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.
Homosexuality is not explicitly referred to in Egypt's legal code, but a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery are applied to homosexuals in this conservative country.
The five men were arrested in what human rights groups describe as a crackdown on people with the AIDS virus, using the debauchery charges as a means to prosecute them.
Four of the five men tested HIV-positive after all were forced to undergo blood tests in custody, Human Rights Watch says. The New York-based rights group issued a statement Tuesday signed by more than 100 other organizations around the world condemning the prosecutions.
Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the five men were abused and tortured over the past several months to "extract confessions" from them.
In addition to their prison time, the men were sentenced to an additional three years of police supervision, meaning they will have to spend every night at a police station, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., the lawyer said.
Ramadan said the four HIV-positive defendants were shocked by their convictions.
"Two of them cried, screamed and shrieked," he said. "The other two, they remained silent, but I saw anger in their eyes for the injustice they have been exposed to."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Yea so they can... have more homosexuality in there.
They will put homo’s in jail but men who rape remain free. Women are the ones who get prosecuted for having sex outside of marriage.
Ain’t Islam grand?
What a bunch of slimeballs AP and SFgate are. It's an Islamic country, and has nothing to do with conservatism. This story is about Islam and Islamic law.
That kind of half-assed, ill-considered comment is picked up by the leftist Press, MSM, or websites like DU, not to mention any number of other venues, when they need something with which to
malign Free Republic. Thanks a lot.
Listen, the comments I read on these threads are 1000 times worse, go preach to someone else.
My wicked sense of humor wonders if, during the torturing of the HIV Positive men, any of the guards got splattered with HIV infected blood or other liquids.
Poetic Justice if so. One can only wish.
I found your comment incredibly funny. It took a moment to get the pronunciation. After that, I laughed my ass off.
Gays for Islam!
Gasp!
What's wrong with that?
Would you prefer that they loved us?
I would “preach” to someone else, if that “someone else” showed himself to be as coarse or heartless as you or your admirer “Eddie01”. With geniuses like the two of you in the Republican Party , SF Republican, it’s no wonder we wind up with the likes of McCain as our ‘nominee’/
Now YOU can go preach to SOMEONE ELSE.
This thread seems to have become the exclusive territory of only the most macho of macho men-— I guess you all flocked to it because of the word “homosexual”?
Do you really think that was my point, that the DU or Huffington Post should “love us”? Yikes, I’m outta here, this thread is the dregs. Yeah, I know, genius, “don’t let the door hit ya on the way out!”
You are all guilty of insensitivity.
Now apologize, go to Rehab, and then Move On. Unless you’re a Republican, in which case you’ll also need to resign whatever job you hold.
Finally, someone with a sense of humor!
Yeah, I know, n00bie, “don’t let the door hit ya on the way out!”
Fixed it.
chortle
Wow.
Now you are shouting at folks.
You're really out of control, aren't you?
Rodney King on speaker-phone: Can’t we all get along?????????/Just Asking - seoul62........
LOL - hes making fun of you and you don’t even know it. What a hick.
What we call "conservatism" is this country is actually rooted in classical liberalism.
Like I said, surfer, I was appreciating his sense of humor, and possibly irony. Don’t they teach you that at
the beach?
Wouldn’t you be having a better time “hanging ten”?
And by the way, calling someone a “hick” is REALLY REALLY stupid.Please go now and wax your board.
Yes, I know what conservatism means in general. However, this case involves a 3 year sentence for homo behavior. The particular commonality and connection to law and politics is the specific religion Islam, not conservatism in general. The term was used specifically as psychological propaganda projecting the bizzare of Islam into the common conservatism known to their readers.
bump with no comment.
NOt shouting-—I failed HTML bootcamp and don’t know how to do italics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.