Public health is endangered by the repressive measures against HIV
June 30th, 2010 | 
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Rights violations forced to hide for those who need information or treatment
New York .- The Cairo police have arrested four men suspected of having HIV, signaling an intensification of the crackdown that endangers public health and violates basic human rights, Amnesty International today expressed Rights Watch and in a joint statement.
With these 12 men are now detained in the context of a campaign against people suspected of being HIV positive. Four have been sentenced to one year in prison, and the other eight remained in custody. Both organizations have urged the Egyptian authorities to respect human rights of these men and their immediate release if they do not want to cause profound damage to initiatives for HIV / AIDS in the country.
“In their misguided attempt to apply Egyptian law on the unjust homosexual conduct, authorities are conducting a crackdown against people living with HIV / AIDS,” said Rebecca Schleifer, of the HIV / AIDS and Human Rights Human Rights Watch. This not only violate basic human rights of people living with HIV / AIDS, but also endanger public health by making request information on the prevention and treatment of HIV / AIDS is a risk. ”
The latest arrests have been carried out because police had used information provided to it under coercion by other men already in custody, according to the Child Health and Human Rights organization Cairene Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Two men arrested in recent tests were positive for HIV / AIDS. The arrest of one of them was extended 15 days on 12 February when he appeared in a court hearing in which both the prosecutor and the judge said the defendant was a danger to public health. Another of those arrested will appear in court on 23 February.
As in previous cases, authorities forced the new detainees to undergo HIV testing. All those who tested positive were held in Cairo hospitals, where they were chained to their beds.
“Arbitrary arrests, forcible HIV tests and physical attacks only serve to worsen the lamentable history of the Egyptian criminal justice system, which leaves unpunished the torture and abuse,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, Deputy Director Programme for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
The arrests began in October 2007 when police intervened in a fight that held two men on the street in downtown Cairo. By saying one of them was HIV positive, the agents then took the two to the head of the Morality Police, and they were opened an investigation for homosexual conduct. During interrogation, the police asked the names of their friends and the people that keep sexual contacts.
The two men told lawyers that officers had given them slaps and beatings for refusing to sign a statement drafted by the police. Spent four days at the head of the Morality Police, handcuffed to an iron desk, sleeping on the floor. They were then subjected to a forensic examination to see if anal had homosexual behavior.
This type of examinations conducted by the force to detect “evidence” of homosexuality are not only false medically, but also constitute torture.
Police later arrested two other men for the simple fact that the former had photographs of him or their phones. The authorities subjected the four HIV tests without their consent.
All of them remain detained, pending the prosecutor decides whether or not to file charges against them for homosexual conduct. The first two, who reportedly tested positive for HIV testing, are still detained in the hospital, chained to their beds.
The information received indicates that a prosecutor said the following to one of the men who had tested positive for HIV testing: “People like you should be burned alive. You do not deserve to live. ”
In November 2007, police raided an apartment where one of the detainees had been living and arrested four other men. All were accused of homosexual conduct. These men told lawyers that police had mistreated, as hitting one in the head and force them all to stand in painful positions and with their arms raised for three hours.
The authorities also sent these men to HIV tests without their consent. On January 13, 2008, a court in Cairo told the four men guilty under Article 9.c of Law 10/1961, what a shame the “habitual practice of debauchery [fujur]“, a term applied in the legislation Egypt to treat gay relationships as a crime by mutual consent.
Defense attorneys told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that the prosecution had based their arguments on statements that the defendants had recanted because coercion was used against them to force them to do them, and also explained that there had been no witnesses or no other evidence of the accusations, which all men refused.
On February 2, 2008, an appeals court in Cairo upheld the sentences of a year of pressure that had been imposed. Treat as a crime of homosexual relations between adults and maintained by mutual agreement constitutes a breach of the obligations undertaken by Egypt under international law of human rights, which include the duty to respect and protect the privacy and personal autonomy.
The apparent use of Article 9.c in these cases to detain some people declared their HIV status and submit to HIV testing without consent is also a violation of these international guarantees of protection and the prohibition of arbitrary detention.
Amnesty International believes that punishable by imprisonment of alleged or actual sexual relations between adults of the same sex, held in private and by mutual consent constitutes a serious violation of human rights and therefore considers that persons imprisoned for this reason they are prisoners of conscience and asked to be released immediately and unconditionally.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged Egyptian authorities to put an immediate end to arrests based on actual or suspected HIV status of individuals.
On the other hand, apart from demanding the release of these 12 men, both organizations have also urged the authorities to put an end to the practice of chaining detainees to their beds in hospitals and to ensure that these men are given every assistance care possible for any serious health problem they may have.
The two organizations have called on Egypt to ensure that training of all staff in the criminal justice system the necessary training so that they know the medical data on HIV and human rights standards relevant and immediately left to subject evidence detainees without their consent.