Police station to test 170 inmates after report of HIV-positive detainee

One hundred and seventy people held at a Giza police station are to be tested for HIV/AIDS after reports that one detainee is HIV positive, according to the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper.

Local media reported that the sister of one of three detainees arrested on "perversion" charges informed authorities at Haram Police Station that her brother has HIV/AIDS. Subsequently, the head of the station ordered that all detainees at the facility be tested and the three men be moved to solitary confinement to prevent them from “practicing homosexuality” with other detainees. He also ordered anal examinations of the three to determine “how they acquired AIDS.”

Men suspected of being gay in Egypt are often subjected to these tests, purportedly to determine whether or not they have engaged in homosexual activity. This practice has been heavily criticized by human rights organizations and international media as being a form of torture and lacking any medical basis.

Although homosexuality is not technically criminalized under Egypt's Penal Code, there has been ongoing crackdown against LGBT individuals in Egypt, with people sentenced under charges ranging from debauchery to “violating the teachings of religion.”

Most recently, seven men suspected of being gay were arrested in February from an apartment in Giza's Agouza district.

The Solidarity with Egypt LGBT Facebook page reported in January that approximately 172 LGBT individuals were arrested between October 2013 and December 2015 based on media reports.