Fridae

A Cairo court on Thursday convicted and sentenced two Egyptian university students for offering gay sex to one year in prison.

According to an International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) press release, the Egyptian State-controlled daily Al Ahram reported on December 19 that the students were convicted for setting up a website which allegedly offered gay sex for money. The article said that a security agent posing as an interested party arranged a meeting at a five-star hotel where the two were arrested.

A news report quoted officials who spoke on condition of anonymity that the pair set up the website site offering gay sex for 100 Egyptian pounds (US$22) per hour.

Sherif Abu Bakr and Khaled Mohammed, from colleges in Cairo, were convicted by the Boulaq misdemeanour court on indecency charges.

In different case, Egyptian courts have reduced on appeal the sentence of a teenager, convicted of "the habitual practice of debauchery" because of his presumed homosexuality, to six months jail and six months probation. Jailed over six months ago in May, the youth was released from jail to serve his probation.

Last month, 23 of the 52 predominantly gay men who were arrested in May on the Queen Boat nightclub were sentenced to serve one to three years in prison for debauchery and contempt of religion.

Although homosexuality is not explicitly referred to in the Egyptian legal system, a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and public morality are punishable by jail terms.