CAIRO, April 9, 2008 (AFP) - A Cairo court on Wednesday jailed five men, four of them HIV positive, for three years on charges of "debauchery" linked to homosexuality, the latest example of what rights groups call a "witch hunt."
The men were arrested three weeks ago in a central Cairo restaurant following an argument after which a client accused them of practising homosexuality, in what rights groups say is becoming a familiar pattern of persecution.
A police doctor carried out anal inspections on the men "which confirmed their homosexuality," the court official said. Human Rights Watch said such examinations constitute torture and are medically spurious.
While homosexuality is not included in a list of sexual offences explicitly outlawed by Egypt's Islamic-inspired legislation, it can be punished under several different laws on morality.
Besides facing widespread public prejudice, Egyptian homosexuals have in the past been jailed on charges ranging from "scorning religion" to "sexual practices contrary to Islam."
Hafez Abu Saada, of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said the men were prosecuted under 1961 anti-prostitution laws which "must be changed ... as it's against the international convention of human rights which Egypt signed in 1986.
"This law is also against the Egyptian constitution which guarantees the right to privacy and individual freedom," he said.
The men, who can appeal the verdict, were also ordered to pay a small fine.
A collective of over 117 health and human rights organisations on Monday sent a letter to the health ministry and the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate saying doctors interrogating HIV-positive men were violating their own ethics.
"Doctors must put patients first, not join a witch-hunt driven by prejudice," Human Rights Watch's Joe Amon said on Monday.
According to HRW, at least 17 Egyptian men have been jailed since October 2007 "in a spreading hunt for people suspected of being HIV-positive."
Many of the men allege they were beaten and abused, while police would arrest others whose contact details were found on detainees' mobile phones.
The rights group collective slammed the use of medical questionnaires as evidence in prosecution and the use of forcible HIV tests and abusive anal examinations.
An Egyptian prosecutor has previously told defendants' lawyers in such cases that the men should not be allowed to "roam the streets freely" because the government considers them a "danger to public health," HRW said.
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