Gays in Egypt face arrest, time in jail amid crackdown

CAIRO — A crackdown on gay people in Egypt intensified over the weekend as security forces raided cafes in downtown Cairo and courts delivered harsh prison sentences.

More than 60 people have been arrested, human-rights activists said, since a concert last month by a rock group where some members of the audience waved a rainbow flag — photos of which were widely viewed on social media and triggered public indignation.

Security forces also have detained people at their homes in the middle of the night and used apps and online chat rooms to entrap those perceived to be gay. Some cafes frequented by members of the gay and transgender community have been shut down.

Some of those arrested have endured beatings and other forms of abuse in their prison cells while others have been subjected to forced anal examinations, human-rights activists said.

“The targeting of the community was never on this scale before,” said Doaa Mostafa, a human-rights lawyer who is representing a man and woman arrested in the latest crackdown.

The sweeps have unfolded as international human-rights activists have denounced the Egyptian government and urged an end to the arrests. On Friday, the United Nations human-rights office described the anti-gay raids in Egypt and similar attacks in Azerbaijan and Indonesia as unjust and violations of international law.

On Saturday, an Egyptian court sentenced four people suspected of being gay to three years in prison, according to the newspaper Egypt Independent.

The crackdown is the latest sign of the repression of political and social freedoms under the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Extrajudicial killings by state security forces have soared, as have arrests of political opponents. Hundreds of websites, including independent media, have been blocked.

“The rainbow flag incident has made the public furious, and this gave an opportunity for the government and state security to start the arrests,” said Mohamed, an Egyptian gay-rights activist who requested that his last name be withheld for security reasons. “They are showing the people that ‘We are conservative. We are embracing our traditions and customs.’”

Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt. But authorities have been targeting gay people under a 1960s anti-prostitution law that contains a clause against “debauchery,” which Egyptian courts have interpreted to include homosexuality.