GAY NEWS - EGYPT

16 May 2001As the media panic over "perverts" and "satanists" continues many gay egyptians are concerned over possible arrest and destroying their computer files or even their computers. Also concerns for the welfare of over fifty of the original 62 arrested continue to grow as contacts prove impossible.

Psychological propoganda dominates the media of a kind which is depressingly sensationalist and almost stone age in its mentality. Here is one short extract from Al Maasa from yesterday (14 May)

"Dr Assa Karim, deputy head of the National Center for Criminal and Social Research in Embaba says 'These are socially ill people in need of intensive social therapy and a study of their circumstances, since each of them has faced a crisis in his life that he was unable to solve, so he creates private pleasures to escape from his frustration at being unable to face this problem. In addition, sometimes he indulges in this perversion to take revenge on society's injustices, like the husband or wife who resorts to infidelity as revenge against mental strife."

15 May 2001: Fears grow for the fate of the 62 arrested prisoners (see 11 May below) who are still held incommunicado. Lawyers from the Hisham Mubarak Legal Aid Centre have, it is claimed, been trying to contact them without success. It has also been reported, but cannot be confirmed yet, that they may have been moved to the Tura Prison where torture is routinely practised.

Fears of forced confessions increased with the statement in the newspaper Al Ahram that one doctor had "confessed" to "practising sinful and immoral acts" and that a computer technician "confessed" to being "immersed in Judaism."

The response of human rights groups to the detention of the 62 men has been lukewarm. Said Gasser Abdel Razeq of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center although saying that the "State was way out of line" told The Cairo Times that the center's pursuit of the case would be limited to documentation with no intention of providing direct legal help for any of the defendants. Said Samir Al Bagouri of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid gave a similar reaction station "We generally defend liberties but there are red lines we should stop at." And the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Hafez Abu Saada declared that defending gay rights was not part of his organization's duties - "personally I don't like the subject of homosexuality and I don't want to defend them."

Mohammed El Shahat, Head of Islamic Law at Tanta University of Law, told the newspaper Al Maasa (14 May) that when there had been few people practising this "perversion" it had not been a great problem but now that many were involved the highest punishment possible should be imposed so as to deter others.

Cairo Times has revealed that a Professor and surgeon at Cairo's University Faculty of Medicine and who was among those arrested on 11 May was slapped on the face several times by a police officer and called a derogatory slang word for gay when he at first refused to leave the discotheque.

11 May 2001: In early hours sixty two Egyptians enjoying a night out at The Queen Boat Discotheque on the Nile in Zamalek, Cairo, were arrested, dragged to waiting police vans, taken to a Abdin police station and some of them badly beaten. Several gay foreigners witnessed the incident but were not detained. They have subsequently been charged with "exploiting religion to promote extreme ideas to create strife and belittling revealed religions." If found guilty the men could be facing up to five years in prison.

Shortly before 2am over one hundred soldiers, state security forces and "vice squad" forces surrounded the club and started to arrest the "suspects". Earlier ten undercover officers had entered the boat's discotheque and had started secretly filming.

Forty were arrested at the boat itself and a further twenty two in apartments in Maadia, Hadayek Qubla and Heliopolis. The arrested included three doctors and a computer company owner. They were accused variously of "perversion" and "satanism". According to Al Wafd newspapers the prisoners were subjected to a medical examination to determine if they had been anally penetrated. The nightclub had been targeted several times previously.

On Sunday 13 May newspapers reported the incident saying that the arrested had confessed to being involved in a "circle of perversion" under the influence of European foreigners. They also published a full list of the names of all those arrested.

According to one report the Supreme State Security Office had authorized the Police to tap the telephone lines of gay men and had been keeping the "suspects" under surveillance.

The Al Maasa Newspaper led its one page spread, which included a picture of some of the arrested, with the headlines

"Confessions of the Satanists in 10 hours. We imported the perverse ideas from a European Group. We spread our beliefs in universities, schools, clubs and through the internet."

The newspaper declared that "Their ideas stress the negation of revealed religions which they consider based on absurd and mystical beliefs......They admit that they have classified themselves as 'brides and grooms' and considered themselves belonging to Lot's people and that Abu Nuwas is their prophet in whom they believe.(Sources: Eye witness accounts, various e-mails and Al Maasa newspaper )

If you wish to complain about this and other police actions against gays try e-mailing one of the Embassies such as the British Embassy at webmaster@britishembassy.org.eg or the US Embassy at rsoegypt@eis.egnet.net.

If you have any information about these police thugs please contact us at info@gayegypt.com. We will try to compile evidence so that one day we can bring legal action against whoever authorized these operations

April 2001: Numerous reports indicate that Egyptian police continue to use the internet chat rooms and browse personal ads to entrap gays.

Masrawy.com asks its users to vote if they want gay chat. If you know the result please let us know.

February 2001: Two Egyptians, Sami Gamal and Gameel Gebreel were convicted of "defaming Egypt" and of an unspecified "indecent act" after they posted a web site on the net soliciting sex either paid or unpaid. The Court declared that they had "abused the technological revolution to do their disgraceful act which defames Egypt." They both received long prison sentences. Source: Ananova.com.

81 per cent of visitors to this site voted that their imprisonment was an abuse of their human rights.

June 2000: A European tourist was murdered after meeting a young Egyptian man in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. They had gone back to the tourist's flat together, money had allegedly been demanded and a brief fight took place culminating in the man being stabbed to death. One day later the building's bawaab (security) informed the police on discovery of the body and the police then arrested dozens of gays until a suspect was found. Whether or not the other arrested but innocent men were beaten, detained or intimadated is not known but as yet Tahrir Square and the Taverne Bar at the Hilton remain unusually quiet with it being difficult to find even half a dozen gay men in an evening were before one might have expected to see a hundred plus. We have more detailed information about the incident but we are seeking confirmation of the facts from the relevant Embassy and other sources - as soon as we know them for sure we will publish them here.

April 2000: The Egyptian press discovered that two men in Zaqaziq had been married by drawing up illegal contracts. There was uproar in the media and both men were arrested. There was a great deal of discussion of the psychology of homosexuality in the press and calls for the eradication of homosexuality as an "illness" from society and even one demand for the burning of homosexuals (Source - Cairo Times).

March 2000: The Queen Boat discotheque in Cairo which had been a very busy and successful gay venue was raided by the police. Two witnesses saw one gay man being beaten on the pavment outside by three police officers who continued to kick him even as he begged them to stop.

March 1999 ? The autobiographical novel "Plain Bread" by Moroccan writer Muhammed Choukri was withdrawn from the American University of Cairo curriculum because, it was alleged by "Al Wafd" newspaper, of the book's descriptions of homosexual experiences. Mufid Shihab, Egypt's Minister of Higher Education, explained "Egypt allows free thinking but rejects violations of its values and traditions." (Source Planet Out and www.ilga.org ).