AN EGYPTIAN court has jailed eight men for three years over a video prosecutors claimed was of a gay wedding, which went viral on the internet.
Homosexuality is not specifically banned under Egyptian law, so the men, arrested in September, were charged with “inciting debauchery and offending public morality”.
The court also sentenced the eight on Saturday to three years of probation once they have served their terms.
The video, filmed aboard a Nile riverboat, shows what prosecutors said was a gay wedding ceremony, with two men in the centre kissing, exchanging rings and cutting a cake with their picture on it.
The video went viral on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
One of the defendants, prior to their arrest, told a television talk show that the video was recorded during a birthday party.
At the last hearing, on October 11, a spokesman for the justice ministry’s forensics department insisted the men were innocent.
