Western diplomats Wednesday monitored a hearing in the trial of 52 Egyptians accused of practicing gay sex, which has sparked complaints from human rights activists and others.
Diplomats from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, France and Sweden were in the High State Security Court in Cairo, whose verdicts cannot be appealed, said AFP.
The defendants, most of them aged in their 20s, could be sentenced to five years in prison if found guilty of the charges.
Three lawyers for the defense said medical tests led to the conclusion that 37 of the accused had not been involved in homosexual practices.
The group, branded "devil worshippers" by the local press, was reportedly arrested following a May 11 evening on the Queen Boat nightclub on the Nile in central Cairo, but several defendants were arrested elsewhere.
The two main defendants stand accused of "exploiting the Islamic religion to spread extremist ideas" as well as practicing gay sex "as part of the group's rituals in front of the remaining defendants and others with the aim of insulting the heavenly religions and sparking civil strife."
The remaining 50 defendants are charged with "practicing debauchery with men."
The practice of homosexuality is not explicitly prohibited under Egyptian law, which is based on Islamic, or sharia, law.
Defendants had charged at previous court sessions that they were beaten and tortured, and the French section of rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for an investigation to be opened into the allegations of torture.
Defense lawyer Farid Al Dib has suggested in court that confessions had been forced out of the defendants and urged the presiding judge to clear them all, arguing that the state prosecution had fabricated the charges, AFP and Reuters said.
The Egyptian lawyers of the 52 suspects defendants told a Cairo court on Wednesday that the prosecution's case was based on false information, security sources said.
Other defense lawyers said the case was based on false information after prosecutors submitted a memorandum to the court on Wednesday correcting the names of four defendants.
The prosecution said the four had been using false names throughout investigations and questioning.
On Tuesday, an Egyptian court found a 15-year-old boy guilty of “practicing sexual immorality,” a local euphemism for homosexuality, and sentenced him to three years in juvenile detention, earlier reports said.
The youth, one of the 52 men arrested in May, was tried in a different court because he is a minor.
Three years was the maximum sentence he could receive, but he can appeal against the verdict.
The hearings are due to continue on October 3 – Albawaba.com
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