Fifty of the 52 Egyptian men nabbed for alleged homosexuality last year in the most infamous of several recent anti-gay sweeps are back in court.
They are being tried in regular court this time rather than in an emergency court, where 29 of the men had been acquitted and 23 convicted, including two men who faced more serious charges and were not granted a new trial.
In May, President Hosni Mubarak's State Security Office for the Ratification of Verdicts cancelled the emergency-court verdicts—convictions and acquittals—for the 50 men who had been prosecuted for "habitual practice of debauchery."
The office said the trials should not have taken place in the Emergency State Security Court, which was set up to deal with terrorism.
Several international human-rights organizations have denounced Egypt's ongoing anti-gay sweeps and have accused police of torture, entrapment and fabricating charges.
