adminCAIRO — Thirty-three men have been arrested in a night-time police raid on a Cairo bathhouse for alleged “debauchery”, a security official said yesterday. Homosexuality is not specifically banned under Egyptian law, so they were arrested in connection with the offence of debauchery instead. If tried and convicted they could face lengthy prison terms. “The police arrested 33 men on Sunday night from a common public bathhouse in the Azbakeya neighbourhood of Cairo for practising debauchery,” General Ali al-Demerdash, head of the Cairo security directorate, said.
He told AFP that the arrests came following an order from the prosecutor general.
Defendants in similar cases in the past have been charged with debauchery and “scorning religion”.
In November, a Cairo court sentenced eight men to three years in jail for “inciting debauchery and offending public morality” after video footage of an alleged gay marriage went viral on the internet. — AFP.
Online Reporter