thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:12 pm Post subject: Egypt torturing HIV positive men |
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Egypt: Stop Criminalizing HIV
HIV-Motivated Arrests and Convictions Threaten Justice and Public Health
(New York, February 5, 2008) � A series of arrests in Cairo sparked by one man�s admission to police that he was HIV-positive endangers public health as well as human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.
" These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished "
In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice In Egypt�s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct
Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian authorities to overturn the convictions of four men for the �habitual practice of debauchery,� and to free four others who are held pending trial. The government should end arbitrary arrests based on HIV status and take steps to end prejudice and misinformation about HIV/AIDS.
�These shocking arrests and trials embody both ignorance and injustice,� said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. �Egypt threatens not just its international reputation but its own population if it responds to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with prison terms instead of prevention and care.�
The arrests began in October 2007, when police stopped two men having an altercation on a street in central Cairo. When one of them told the officers that he was HIV-positive, police immediately took them both to the Morality Police office and opened an investigation against them for homosexual conduct. The two men told human rights defenders that they were slapped and beaten for refusing to sign statements the police wrote for them. They spent four days in the Morality Police office handcuffed to an iron desk, sleeping on the floor. Police later subjected the two men to forensic anal examinations designed to �prove� that they had engaged in homosexual conduct.
Human Rights Watch has documented that such examinations to detect �evidence� of homosexuality are not only medically spurious but constitute torture. |
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/05/egypt17972.htm |
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