Gay MEP attacks Egypt retrials

Date: 11/07/02

THE European Commission has been asked to help stop the 'persecution' of homosexuals in Egypt after 52 gay men were arrested last year on a Nile riverboat.

Several of the men were sentenced to between one and five years on charges ranging from 'habitual debauchery' to 'contempt of religion'.

The men were later released, however, after the court verdict was annulled by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

But the case has again come under the spotlight following the decision to retry 50 of the men.

Some of them have alleged they were tortured while in custody and claim they were coerced into making confessions which they subsequently withdrew.

A string of celebrities, including Elton John and Sting, have hit out at the men's treatment and MEPs last week adopted a resolution calling on Egypt to stop the 'persecution' of gays.

The resolution also calls on the Commission and EU ministers to express concern about the men's retrial.

UK Socialist MEP Michael Cashman, himself gay, said that under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights no one should be tried again for an offence for which he had already been convicted.

He said: 'These men should be afforded their fundamental human rights.'

UK Socialist MEP Michael Cashman asked the European Commission to help stop the persecution of homosexuals in Egypt after 52 men were arrested on a boat moored on the Nile in Cairo on 11 May 2001 and charged for debauchery and contempt of religion.

• Primary Source

Review of International Studies, Vol.33 Issue 1: The Queen Boat case in Egypt: sexuality, national security and state sovereignty https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210507007346

The Guardian, 18.07.01: 50 Egyptian gays in court for 'fomenting strife' https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jul/18/1

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