Egypt accused of "indifference to justice and public health" as HIV convictions upheld

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • May 30, 2008 - 11:33

A Cairo appeals court has upheld the sentences handed down to five men jailed as part of a 'crackdown' on men who are HIV positive or living with AIDS.

Nine men have been sent to prison so far.

"To send these men to prison because of their HIV status is inhuman and unjust," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS programme at Human Rights Watch.

"Police, prosecutors, and doctors have already abused them and violated their most basic rights, and now fear has trumped justice in a court of law."

As in previous cases, authorities forced the detainees to undergo HIV tests without their consent.

Four of the five convicted last month tested positive.

They were charged with the "habitual practice of debauchery," a term which in Egyptian law includes consensual sexual acts between men.

Well, the rest of the story is here.

Very interesting people, the Egyptians.

Egypt: New Indictments In HIV Crackdown

All this is not my stuff, but I think we should know about it. Why do I care? Why shouldnt I?

The Egyptian government has handed down indictments against five more men who are HIV-positive.

The five are among 12 men detained on grounds of HIV since October 2007, in what appears to be a widening police crackdown. All were held on charges of "habitual practice of debauchery," a term used under Egyptian law to prosecute consensual sexual acts between men.

Four of the 12 already have been sentenced to one-year prison terms. (story) Charges against three others were dropped.

Before issuing the indictment, the lead prosecutor told a lawyer for the defendants that the men should not be allowed to "roam the streets freely" because the government considered them "a danger to public health,"

police arrested the first two men after stopping them during an altercation in the street. At that time one told police officers that he was HIV-positive.

The defendants’ lawyers told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that officers detained both men, beat them and subjected them to abusive and intrusive physical examinations, trying to prove they had engaged in homosexual conduct. They then arrested other men whose names or personal information were found in the two men’s possession.

According to the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, doctors from Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population subjected all 12 detainees to HIV tests without their consent. Authorities kept those who tested HIV-positive confined in hospitals for weeks. They were chained to their beds until February 25, when the ministry ordered them unchained after domestic and international outcry.

The case files also contained the results of the compulsory HIV tests. Four of the five men tested HIV-positive. The three men whose charges were dropped tested HIV-negative.

"These men have been treated as if they are a national threat simply because four of them were found to be HIV-positive," said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

"The authorities should not be prosecuting them, but rather investigating the abuse and ill-treatment meted out against them and taking steps to ensure that such abuse does not happen again."

Oh well, no comment. But it is a shame that in this day and age a country can treat someone who is HIV positive like a criminal. Thought we had got over that some time ago...

GayUganda

Where it is Illegal to be HIV Positive

Is it whining to complain of the abuses which occur because of sexuality?

Asking because I was going to say I should stop whining.

This whining is good. Because at the time I whine, I also affirm that something is wrong. And well, if it is against me, why shouldn’t I complain.

What am I talking about?

In Egypt it is illegal to be HIV positive.

Fantastic. How does that come about? If you are HIV positive, then you must be gay. And of course, since no one can read your sexuality from your face, it has to be tortured out of you. A signed confession.

You don’t believe me?

That’s fine. Just read this.

Human Rights Watch says the first two men were arrested in October when Cairo police intervened in a street argument. One of the men told police he was HIV-positive. Officers immediately arrested both men and took them to the Morality Police, which began investigating them for homosexual activity, which is not officially a crime in Egypt.

The rights group says the men were handcuffed to a metal desk for four days, beaten and subjected to an intrusive medical examination that amounted to torture.

Two more men were arrested because their photographs or phone numbers were found in the possession of the first two. All four are still in custody. The first two, the rights group says, are handcuffed to their hospital beds 23 hours a day.

Human Rights Watch says four more men were arrested in November, after police raided an apartment where one of the earlier detainees had previously lived. The arrest report indicates they were not doing anything illegal when they were arrested, but they were convicted of "debauchery" in January simply because they were in a home where one of the other detainees used to live. An appeals court recently upheld their convictions.

So, in Egypt, if you are HIV positive, follows you are gay, follows that you can sign the confession. What a beautiful world we live in.

GayUganda