Fridae

A judge in the retrial of 50 Egyptian men accused of having gay sex summoned the arresting officers to next month's hearing, where they may be cross-examined for the first time, according to Agence France-Presse.

Hassan al-Sayess, the presiding judge at the Abdine criminal court in central Cairo, said the three police officers will testify at the next hearing, set for October 12.

The police raided and arrested the patrons of the Queen Boat discotheque in Cairo, on or around the night of May 10/11, 2001 while other arrests were made within the next days. Civil rights organisations reported that the 52 were tortured, and jailed until their trial.

The group underwent a first trial by the state security court, which sentenced 23 of the men to prison November last year - mostly for one to two years, on charges related to practicing homosexuality - and acquitted 29 others.

In May, President Hosni Mubarak has annulled jail terms for 21 Egyptian men convicted of gay sex on November 14 after a mass trial by the high state security court and ordered prosecutors to review their cases and those of 29 others who were acquitted.

However, he upheld jail terms against the two leading defendants, Sherif Farahat and Mahmud Ahmed Allam.

Sherif Farahat, the lead defendant in the case whose verdict was upheld, was sentenced to five years in prison for "scorning religion" and "sexual practices contrary to Islam."

Mahmud Ahmed Allam, whose sentence was also upheld, was jailed for three years for scorning religion.

While 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.