Europe and the US Bankroll Brutality Abroad E-Mail Blast the Abusers and Their Allies!! For more detailed reporting from IGLHRC and for details of their email campaign please click on www.iglhrc.org SUMMARY On February 3, 2002, a court in Boulak-al-Dakrour (in Giza, a suburb of Cairo) convicted four men for consensual homosexual behavior. A judge sentenced each to three years in prison with three years' probation to follow. Days later, Europe and the United States gave Egypt billions of dollars to keep such courts, police, and prisons running. The "Boulak 4" had been arrested on November 10, 2001. The Egyptian press announced the arrests on November 15, the morning after verdicts were handed down in the "Cairo 52" trial--in an apparent signal that State pursuit of suspected homosexuals would be unrelenting. That day, an IGLHRC representative was able to speak to one of the men through the bars of a police wagon at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Boulak. The prisoner told how all four had been beaten and ill-treated during interrogations. The four men have been jailed since their arrest. The February 3 session was the only full hearing in the case. Prosecutors called no witnesses and submitted virtually no evidence. Other hearings had been aborted because the prosecution failed to summon the accused from prison. The judge had earlier described the defendants in abusive language. Persecution for suspected homosexual conduct continues in Egypt. At least eight men now face trial in Damanhour, capital of Al-Beheira province; the Egyptian press has already described them as the "Beheira Perverts' Organization." IGLHRC has also learned of seven men who were arrested and tortured for alleged homosexual conduct after a September 2001 police raid on a birthday party in Haram, a Cairo suburb. More information on these cases can be found below. IGLHRC is alarmed not only by the pattern of persecution, but by other governments' unconcern--a malign neglect almost amounting to tacit approval. Barely two weeks after the Cairo 52 verdicts, the European Union approved a new trade agreement with Egypt, brushing aside human rights concerns. Three days after the Boulak verdict, the United States and the European Union, joined by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, pledged over $10 billion in aid to Egypt. IGLHRC calls for IMMEDIATE letters to the Egyptian government to protest these ongoing arrests. IGLHRC also calls for IMMEDIATE letters to officials of the European Union and of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Condemn the bankrolling of brutality. Urge them to link their aid programs to human rights records in all cases, throughout the region and worldwide, and to promote basic values of freedom and justice in their dealings with all their allies. BACKGROUND A: THE "BOULAK FOUR" On November 10, 2001--four days before the verdict was handed down in the Cairo 52 case--four men were arrested in or around the Boulak-al-Dakrour district in Giza, a Cairo suburb. The arrests were first reported on November 15, in the newspapers Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhureya, as addenda to their articles on the Cairo 52 trial. The papers stated that the men had been arrested for turning an apartment into a "den of perversion." The exact circumstances of the arrest are unclear. Prosecution accounts later claimed the men were arrested at the alleged apartment. The accused and their lawyers stated that all were seized on the street--one in Giza Square in Giza, the other three were arrested one by one in various places around Cairo. apparently fingered by an informer. (See Section C below for more information on informers.) An IGLHRC representative, in Cairo to attend the November 14 trial, immediately learned that the four menwere being questioned at the Boulak Public Prosecutor's office. Arriving there, the IGLHRC representative was able to speak to one of the defendants through the bars of a police wagon. Speaking in tears, the defendant said that he had been stripped naked and beaten with batons, splashed with cold water in the face, and left hanging by the bars in his jail cell. He said the other three defendants had been beaten as well. He said that only two of the defendants actually knew one another before their arrests. Only by chance had the accused men been able to get legal representation--a difficult task for detainees, whom the Egyptian criminal justice system virtually bars from contact with the outside world. At their first interrogation at the Public Prosecutor's office, the four had seen two lawyers passing in the hall and had begged them in tears to take the case. At the November 15 hearing at the Prosecutors' office, their detention was extended for 45 days. Detention was renewed again at a January 1 hearing, with the prisoners ultimately moved to Tora Prison. The four defendants--Rami S., Sherif H., Sherif A., and Mohammed S.--were jailed until their trial ultimately took place on February 3. January saw a display of ineptitude by the Boulak Public Prosecutor's Office. The trial was scheduled to begin on January 20 in the Boulak al-Dakrour Court of Misdemeanors; however, the prosecution had neglected to send a summons to Tora Prison, to bring the prisoners to court. The judge opened the proceedings by demanding of the bailiff, "Where are the khawalat [a demeaning term for transvestites or homosexuals]? Bring in the khawalat." A hearing was next attempted on January 27; the prisoners were again absent, as the prosecution had still not sent a summons. The judge issued another summons for February 3, and this time sent the men's defense lawyer to carry it to Tora Prison, warning him that if the prisoners were not brought to court on that date he might sentence them in absentia. The prisoners finally appeared at the February 3 hearing, white-clad and with their heads shaven. The trial was conducted in the office of Judge Medhat Fahwaikh, with a representative of Amnesty International also in attendance. The men were charged with "habitual practice of debauchery" [al-fujur] under Article 9(c) of Law 10/1961--a provision commonly used in Egypt to consensual homosexual behavior. However, they were also apparently charged under other Articles in that law which criminalize prostitution, and it was alleged that they had run an apartment for homosexual prostitution. The prosecution introduced the address of an apartment but no contract showing its owner/renter, or any evidence that any of the defendants were connected with it. All defendants denied the charge or any such connection. IGLHRC is gravely concerned that the Egyptian government--aware that the mandates of major international human rights organizations may include consensual homosexual conduct but not prostitution--intends to place future defendants outside the penumbra of protection by charging them with performing homosexual acts for money. The prosecution introduced virtually no other evidence. The defendants had not been referred to forensic examinations, and none had confessed. No prosecution witness was summoned. The vice squad officer responsible for the arrests never appeared, despite no fewer than four summons. Nonetheless, the judge convicted all four men, and sentenced them to three years' imprisonment, to be followed by three years' probation. Because (unlike the Cairo 52 trial) this case was not heard by an Emergency Special Security Court for Misdemeanors, the defendants are allowed to appeal. Latest news 22 May 2012: Cairo psychiatrist claims he can "cure" 70 to 75 per cent of gay teenagers.