The 21 men arrested in May 2001 at a Cairo nightclub known for being popular with gays have been reconvicted and will now suffer harsh jail terms after their original sentences were quashed on presidential orders due to intense pressure from international human rights and gay activists and Western governments.

The 21 were sentenced to three years in jail on charges of practising debauchery. A further 29 men were acquitted at the retrial which began in July last year.

While the new sentences are longer than those originally imposed, the men are currently free on bail and, unlike at their previous trial conducted in a special security court, they can now appeal against their sentences.

The Emergency State Security Court initially sentenced 23 of them in November 2001 to jail terms ranging from one to five years. The rest were acquitted.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last May ordered 50 of the men - including the 29 acquitted - to be retried on the debauchery counts before an ordinary criminal court because the charges against the men were not serious enough to warrant a state security trial.

Two of the original 52 men who were not given a retrial were sentenced to five years in prison for "scorning religion" and "sexual practices contrary to Islam" and the other to three years for scorning religion.

Although homosexuality is not explicitly prohibited under Egyptian law, which is based on Islamic law, gays have been persecuted with a range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery.