"(Cairo, May 29, 2008) - A Cairo appeals court’s decision to uphold the sentences imposed on five men jailed in a crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS underscores the Egyptian government’s dangerous indifference to public health and justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The May 28 ruling upheld the maximum three-year prison terms for each of the five, following a months-long campaign targeting men with HIV/AIDS. A total of nine men have been sentenced to prison so far.
“To send these men to prison because of their HIV status is inhuman and unjust,” said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at Human Rights Watch. “Police, prosecutors, and doctors have already abused them and violated their most basic rights, and now fear has trumped justice in a court of law.”
On May 7, a court of first instance in Cairo had convicted the five men on charges of “habitual practice of debauchery,” a phrase that in Egyptian law encompasses consensual sexual acts between men.
"Before their first trial, a prosecutor told the men’s lawyer that they should not be allowed to “roam the streets freely” because the government considered them “a danger to public health.”
...
"On January 14, 2008, a Cairo court sentenced four of those men to one-year prison terms on “debauchery” charges. An appeals court upheld those sentences on February 2. The present five defendants were referred for trial separately in March. Authorities released three other men, who tested negative for HIV, without charge, after months in detention.
While the 12 were in detention, doctors from the Ministry of Health forcibly subjected all of them to HIV tests without their consent. Doctors from Egypt’s Forensic Medical Authority performed abusive anal examinations on the men to “prove” they had had sex with other men. Human Rights Watch has documented that such examinations conducted in detention constitute torture. Police and guards beat several of the men in detention. A prosecutor told one of the men that he had tested positive for HIV by saying, “People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live.”
The prisoners who tested HIV-positive were chained to their beds in hospitals for months. After a local and international outcry, the Ministry of Health ordered the men unchained on February 25."
SOURCE Jail sentences for suspicion of HIV? Being tested against consent? Anal examinations to "prove" men are having sex with other men? Seriously? Seriously?! "Debauchery" you call it - interesting. What are you doing Egypt? Got tired of harassing your Christian population and decided to pick a new group? This is just sad.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. has played this game as well:
In Dallas, TX:
HIV Positive Man Sentenced to 35 Years After Spitting on Cop{For the record,
HIV is NOT transmitted via saliva. I'm no fan of this man's behavior, but the deadly weapon charge is bullshit.}
And more recently, interestingly enough, again in Dallas:
Man Claiming to be HIV Positive Accused of Biting Guard During Scuffle Now I find this all very interesting. The ethical implications of jailing people for having an illness are overwhelming. On the other hand the individuals that are attempting to use the misled fear that surrounds their illness as a weapon to their own advantage must not be allowed to get away with it. They're making the situation worse for everyone with HIV by legitimizing society's anxiety.