CAIRO, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A verdict in the Cairo trial of 26 men, on charges human rights groups say is a crackdown on gay men, was postponed Monday until Jan. 12.
Four of the accused were charged with "running a place that organizes paid sexual orgies;" the rest were accused of debauchery, a legal code word for homosexuality. Although homosexuality is legal in Egypt, gay men are often arrested for debauchery or public indecency.
In the trial, which began Sunday, defense lawyers said the men arrested Dec. 7 were taken from the bathhouse wearing only towels and in view of television cameras, a violation of their rights. The arrests were reported on the Al-Qahera Wal-Nas channel, whose announcers said the footage revealed "the reasons behind the spread of HIV in Egypt and the group-sex business." Egypt's Interior Ministry later said it conducted tests on the defendants to ascertain if they engaged in sexual activity, drawing criticism from international gay rights groups.
Although a crackdown on gay rights in Egypt was expected under the overthrown President Mohammed Morsi, it never occurred. Under current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, about 150 men have been arrested for alleged homosexual conduct, according to the rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, with little public outrage.
Sisi has effectively silenced political groups with a religious grounding, but has used the deeply conservative outlook of many Egyptians to rally support.
Shadi Hamid of Washington's Brooking Institution told the Wall Street Journal, "He (Sisi) has been very aggressive in using the religious establishment in Egypt for his own political ends. Public sentiment is Islamically-oriented to one degree or another."
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch has said the increase in arrests for homosexual practices is an attempt by Sisi to burnish his conservative credentials.
"In an effort to bolster its political standing, this supposed secular state is acting with a religious fervor that was not seen even under the Muslim Brotherhood," Graeme Reid of Human Rights Watch told the Wall Street Journal.
