The Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC), the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence today expressed their astonishment and outrage over the conviction without trial of people tried for consensual homosexual conduct in the "Queen Boat" case. Twenty-one out of fifty defendants were found guilty of the "habitual practice of debauchery" by the Qasr al-Nil Court of Misdemeanors this morning and sentenced to three years in prison to be followed by three years of police probation. The organizations said the "trial" was a flagrant, scandalous violation of internationally-recognized fair trial principles.

The three human rights groups had observed all the hearings of the case since July 2002. The trial was postponed five times due to the indifference of officers of State Security Intelligence who consistently failed to show at the Court in accordance with the Court's orders to be crossexamined by defense attorneys. Instead of fining the officers or issuing a warrant to summon them, Chief Judge Mohammed Hassan decided to punish the defendants by sentencing them to prison without allowing any of the lawyers to submit defense memos or perform oral arguments and without hearing the testimony of any witnesses.

Background
Thirty-one defendants were arbitrarily arrested on the Queen Boat floating restaurant on 10 May 2001. They were joined on the same night by people who were picked from the streets until the total number of defendants reached fifty-two. Defendants were kept in incommunicado detention for three days during which they were subjected to torture that was later documented in official prosecution and medical reports. They were all later referred to an exceptional court established under the Emergency Law. On 14 November 2001, the State Security Emergency Court of Misdemeanors acquitted 29 defendants and sentenced 23 others to between one and five years in prison.

In June 2002 the Office for Ratification of Verdicts cancelled the guilty and innocent verdicts of fifty defendants and ordered their retrial before a normal misdemeanors court. Prisoners were released after paying a L.E 500-bond. The case was considered on 27 July, 7 September, 12 October, 2 November, 21 December and 25 January where the Chief Judge kept postponing the trial for failure of witnesses to come.

For more information: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights:
Tel/fax: (202) 7950 582 - 7962 682 - E-mail: eiprcairo@yahoo.com
Hisham Mubarak Law Center: Tel/fax: (202) 575 8908- E-mail: hmlc@link.net
Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence: Tel/fax: (202) 577 6792- E-mail: nadeem@intouch.com