Egypt Court To Issue Verdict On ‘Gay Wedding’ Video On 1 November

Qasr Al-Nile misdemeanor court decided to issue its verdict on 1 November for the case of eight men charged with “debauchery” for appearing in an online video of a gay wedding on a Nile boat.

The defendants have been detained since early September as per an order from Egypt’s prosecutor-general to investigate charges of debauchery and spreading acts that violate public decency.

The investigations identified nine men who appear in the video as well as the boat’s location and the person who shot the footage.

Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat watched the video and confirmed that the footage was of two men getting married, a statement from the prosecution said.

Egypt’s forensics authority had announced earlier this month that the defendants had undergone physical inspections and were found to be “not gay”.

Human Rights Watch condemned news of the forced inspections, saying that they “violate international standards against torture”.

Consensual same-sex relations are not explicitly prohibited in Egypt, but other laws have been used to imprison gay men in recent years, including “debauchery” or “shameless public acts.”

A man who said he was one of those who appeared in the video denied the allegations in an interview with privately-owned Rotana Masriya television channel in early September.

He said he was holding a birthday party for his friend and got him a silver ring as a present because it was something he wanted.

In September, An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced six allegedly homosexual men to two years in jail with labour for the same charges of “committing debauchery.”

The six men were arrested during a raid on an apartment

Source : Ahram online