Fridae

Just days after the Human Rights Watch condemned the Egyptian government for continuing to entrap gay men and sentence them to lengthy prison terms, Cairo police have arrested 13 more men for consensual gay sex.

The 13 suspects who were arrested in a rented apartment while "practicing sex" have been turned over to the prosecutor, according to a security official. They were arrested within the last week although the exact day is uncertain.

The men are now being detained in jail and the prosecutor is expected to make a decision Saturday either extending their detention or charging them with debauchery and homosexuality, the official said.

According to media reports citing Wafd newspaper, an opposition mouthpiece, the arrested men included university students and hotel employees. The apartment belonged to the owner of a travel agency. The newspaper said the detainees did not deny that they are homosexuals.

Although homosexuality is not explicitly referred to in the Egyptian penal code, a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery are applied to homosexuals. Islam, the religion 90 percent of Egyptians practise prohibits homosexuality.

In the last two years, dozens of homosexuals have been detained and convicted.

In the largest case, state security arrested 52 homosexuals on a floating restaurant on the Nile River in November 2001. The country's emergency court sentenced 23 of the defendants to two years in prison, and the two suspected leaders were sentenced to three and five years in prison. The others were acquitted. Appeals from the emergency court, which was created to protect against threats to national security, are limited.

President Hosni Mubarak later tossed out all of the verdicts, except for the two leaders, and the 50 men are currently on retrial before an ordinary court. That court has announced it will hand down its decision on March 15.