GAY ARRESTS IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES

A top producer at Egyptian TV and a young man working with the foreign press were among four men arrested in Cairo earlier this month when a “network of homosexuals” was broken up, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission says in a digest of press reports.

Almoheet, a Pan-Arab News Internet portal reported: “On Jan 5, The Egyptian Security Services destroyed a network of homosexuals, following complains to the Morality Unit of the Interior Ministry that the young men frequented an apartment in Ahmed Orabi Street.

“At first, the detectives suspected that the place accommodated young girls with male clients, but the police soon found out that all people in the place were men.

“After surveillance, the detectives found out that all of the people who visited the apartment were gay, and the location was a place set up for gays to commit sodomy,” the report continued.

“The ringleaders of the gay prostitution operation were four people, including a top producer at Egyptian TV, a fabric merchant, an accountant, and a young man who worked with foreign press.

“Following the raid, eight people were arrested and police confiscated gay pornography on the detainee’s computers and on their cell phones.

In Morocco, an Italian man has been sentenced to four months in jail for operating was described as “a gay network” in the country.

The Almaghrebiya newspaper reported that on Jan 19, the Criminal Chamber of the lower Court in the city of Marakesh, sentenced an Italian citizen to prison and a fine of 1,000 Derham on charges of “homosexuality, filming and possession of pornographic images.”

The man, named as Gian Paolo, will be deported from Morocco at the end of his sentence. An Italian resident of Morocco, he confessed to the law enforcement officials that he headed a network of Moroccan and foreign homosexuals in Spain, Belgium, and the United States, the paper reported, saying he took pornographic images of “abnormal sexual situations” involving Moroccans and citizens of other countries, and posted them on the internet.

In Bahrain, the newspaper Alwaqht reported that two Asian men were sentenced to six months in jail with hard labour when found guilty of the “practicing of debauchery”.

Under the headline “Men’s Barbershop Became a Cruising Gay Scene”, the paper reported that “the accused were arrested by the Public Morality Police for committing prostitution with their barbershop clients.

“After police were tipped off to their activities, undercover agents went to their place of business, pretending that they wanted to have sex with them. The accused agreed to have homosexual sex for 10 dollars. After their arrests, they confessed that they used to have sex with their clients for 10 to 20 dinars a trick.”