Egypt: Stop police entrapment, detention & ill treatment of gay men

To:  President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak

Dear President Mubarak:

We the undersigned are gravely concerned about the guilty verdict for 21 of the 50 men in their retrial for “habitual debauchery.”

We are also concerned about the continuing systematic and widespread pattern of police entrapment, detention and ill-treatment, of allegedly gay men in Egypt.

Over the past year, there have been several cases of alleged gay men who have been detained after having agreed to meet people contacted through the Internet who turned out to be undercover security officers or police informants. Wissam Tawfiq Abyad and Zaki Sayid Zaki ‘Abd al-Malak were arrested and convicted on charges of “habitual debauchery” when they went to meet contacts they had made on a gay website. Private conversations they had through the Internet were used against them as evidence.

Mahmud Ahmad ‘Allam Daqla, who was convicted on additional charges of “contempt of religion” at the original trial of the 52 men in Cairo by the Emergency State Security Court, remains in jail today.

Amnesty International believes that the majority, if not all, of these men were convicted purely on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Amnesty International considers people imprisoned solely on the basis of their sexual orientation prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Egypt: Stop police entrapment, detention & ill treatment of gay men Petition to President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak was created by Amnesty International OUTfront Program and written by Amnesty International.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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