Tampa Bay Coalition News

The following is a press release from, MP Volker Beck and the text

of the letter sent just below the press release.

Press Release - September 5, 2001

MPs of all factions are sending an appeal to
Egypt: Respect human rights of homosexuals

Volker Beck (MP, speaker for legal affairs of the
Green Party and member of the presidency of the
Green Faction in the Bundestag) has declared:

Members of the Bundestag (German Parliament) of
all five political factions have sent a common
appeal to the Government of Egypt, asking it to
respect the human rights of homosexuals.

A spectacular trial is taking place against 52
men in Cairo, who are accused of violating
"public morality". Two of the defendants are also
charged with "disdain of the religion". The men
had been arrested in may in a floating restaurant
in Cairo and have been held in custody since
then. Amnesty International investigated the case
and came to the conclusion that the men had been
arrested only because of their sexual orientation
and not because of any violations of the law.
There are reports that some of the arrested men
have been tortured to make them sign confessions.

In their appeal, which was sent to the Egyptian
Ambassador in Berlin today, the MPs are demanding
the respect of human rights, the release of the
52 men and an investigation of the charges of
torture. 29 MPs have signed the letter, among
them the Chairwoman of the Human Rights
Commission of the German Parliament. US members
of the House of Representatives had sent a
similar letter to the Egyptian Government before.

I am especially happy that fellow MPs of all five
political parties represented in Parliament have
taken part in this. This is a clear sign that we
are united in human rights questions regardless
of all political divisions. Human rights are
indivisible. They are, of course, valid for
homosexuals as well.

Text of Letter
Your Excellency,

With great concern, I have learned through media
reports, that 52 men have been arrested in May
on a restaurant boat in Cairo and are now
standing trial before the State Security Court
facing charges of "offence to public moral" and 2
of them charged with "Disdain of Religion". An
investigation team of amnesty international came
to the conclusion, that these men are being held
and charged just because of their alleged sexual
orientation and not because of any wrongdoing.
The charges that the Prosecutor holds against
them, obviously lack any substance.

Therefore I would like to call upon your
government and particularly upon the Minister of
Justice

- to make sure that the rights of the arrested
men as human beings and their civil rights as
Egyptian citi-zens are respected and to make
sure that Egyptian law is respected in the
procedures
- to release these people without any delay, as
the evidence used against them is obviously
forged or non-existent
- to investigate the charges against the police
forces that the men arrested have been ill-
treated or tortured to extract confessions.

I hope that the charges against these men are
dropped and that they are released, as they
should have been a long time ago, if Egyptian law
and international conventions ratified by Egypt
had been prop-erly applied.

Sincerely,

Volker Beck (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Rudolf Bindig (SPD)
Dr. Thea Dückert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Rainer Eppelmann (CDU/CSU)
Arne Fuhrmann (SPD)
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Monika Ganseforth (SPD)
Alfred Hartenbach (SPD)
Carsten Hübner (PDS)
Christel Humme (SPD)
Ulla Jelpke (PDS)
Sabine Jünger (PDS)
Dr. Evelyn Kenzler (PDS)
Monika Knoche (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Angelika Köster-Loßack (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Norbert Lammert (CDU/CSU), Heidi Lippmann (PDS)
Oswald Metzger (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Kerstin Müller (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen
                Fraktionsvorsitzende)
Winfried Nachtwei (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Christa Nickels (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen)
Chairwoman or the Human Rights Commission)
Gudrun Roos (SPD), Thomas Sauer (SPD)
Gudrun Schaich-Walch (SPD, Parlamentarische
       Staatssekretärin im Bundesministerium für
       Gesundheit)
Christina Schenk (PDS)
Dieter Schloten (SPD)
Silvia Schmidt (SPD)
Reinhard Schultz (SPD)
Dr. Max Stadler (FDP)
Uta Zapf (SPD)