A Cairo misdemeanour court acquitted on Monday 26 defendants accused of “debauchery” after receiving a tip that they were holding a “gay bath house orgy”. The defendants welcomed the verdict with applause and celebrations, an eye witness told Aswat Masriya. The police raided a bath house in downtown Cairo’s Ramses in December 2014, arresting those inside. The prosecution accused the bath house owner and four others of running the place to “practice, facilitate and incite debauchery.” The 21 other men were accused of “debauchery” and violating public decency. The incident was reported to the police by a journalist who discovered the bath house when working on a report on the spread of HIV in Egypt. Egyptian laws do not clearly ban homosexuality, yet Article 9 of the 1961 Anti-Prostitution Law punishes those guilty of “inciting debauchery and immorality” by imprisonment for a period ranging from three to five years. Egypt has recently clamped down on homosexual activities, arresting in September eight men who appeared in a Youtube video depicting an alleged homosexual marriage ceremony. The Qasr al-Nil Misdemeanour Court sentenced the eight men to three years in prison on charges of inciting debauchery and violating…
26 Men Arrested In ‘Cairo Bathhouse Raid For Homosexuality’ Found Innocent
January 12, 2015
