Cashman In Talks To Free Gays

March 19, 2002

Former EastEnders star and Labour MEP Michael Cashman is holding talks with Egyptian officials in a bid to try to free 23 men imprisoned their country for homosexuality.

The politician is leading the campaign to get the group released and was due to present Egypt's ambassador to the European Union with a petition signed by showbusiness figures supporting his fight including Sir Elton John, Emma Thompson and Eddie Izzard.

Mr Cashman said that international pressure so far had failed to persuade Egypt's President Mubarak to pardon the men.

Breakthrough

And if there was no breakthough in the talks, due to be held in Brussels, he would press the European Commission to cancel an EU trade and aid accord signed with Egypt last November on the grounds it had breached human rights clauses included in the agreement, the MEP claimed.

Mr Cashman said: "This is not just an issue in which a few Euro-MPs are involved: Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Council in New York are all concerned."

He said the circumstance of the mens' detention and their lack of access to any appeals procedure also violated international standards for a fair trial.

Other petition signatories included actors Sir Anthony Sher, Sir Ian McKellen, Sally Whittaker (Coronation Street), Trudie Goodwin (The Bill), Richard Wilson, author Margaret Drabble, comedian Graham Norton, and Maureen Lipman.

Debauchery

A total of 52 men were arrested in Egypt in May 2001 and charged with the habitual practice of debauchery. At their trial, 29 were acquitted, but 23 were sentenced to prison terms, including hard labour for between one and five years.

Egypt's ambassador to Brussels has insisted that his country does not outlaw homosexuality, and, in a letter to an Antwerp-based gay rights group, explained that the men were arrested during a party on a boat on the Nile because "they not only showed lewd behaviour, but also ate and drank in great abundance".

But an Amnesty International report into the cases states: "The case documents, including the records of the investigations, the medical reports and the verdict, leave no doubt that the men have been convicted for engaging in consensual relations with other men."