Western diplomats monitor gay sex trial in Egypt

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.

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. However, numerous statutes sanction conduct deemed to be an affront to public morality.

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.

Defence 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.

Amnesty International complained in June that "the majority, if not all, of these men are detained purely on the grounds of their alleged sexual orientation."

The trial opened in mid-July.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old Egyptian, who has been tried as a minor in the case, was sentenced to three years in prison for "debauchery with men."

Mahmud Abdel Fatah, whose sentencing was based on confessions made during interrogation, will also serve three years probation, court sources said.

Abdel Fatah, who was tried in a juvenile court, will be permitted to appeal his sentence.