CAIRO: Thirty-three men have been arrested in a night-time police raid on a Cairo bathhouse for alleged “debauchery,” a security official said on Monday.
Homosexuality is not specifically banned under Egyptian law, so they were arrested in connection with the offense of debauchery instead.
If tried and convicted they could face lengthy prison terms.
“The police arrested 33 men on Sunday night from a common public bathhouse in the Azbakeya neighborhood of Cairo for practicing debauchery,” General Ali Al-Demerdash, head of the Cairo security directorate, said. He told AFP that the arrests came following an order from the prosecutor general.
Defendants in similar cases in the past have been charged with debauchery and “scorning religion.”
Egypt arrests 33 men for ‘debauchery’
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