An Egyptian judge has sentenced eight men to three years in prison on charges of spreading indecent images and inciting debauchery for appearing in a gay wedding video  which we reported about here a few months ago

Reunters reports:

The judge ruled that they would also be subject to police supervision following the completion of their prison sentence.

The sentence was met with uproar from the families of the defendants, who demonstrated outside the courthouse in downtown Cairo and were cleared by police. The defendants, who had denied the charges, stood silent in the court room cage as the verdict was read, one of them holding up a copy of the Koran. […]

The men were first charged in September when a public prosecutor’s statement said that the images were “humiliating, regrettable and would anger God”, concluding that they constituted a criminal act. The prosecutor ordered the coroner to carry out physical examinations as part of the investigation.

During the minute-long video two men are seen exchanging rings before kissing each other aboard a Nile felucca. The pair are surrounded by cheering friends. Meanwhile a cake featuring the pair’s faces is also present in the film.

While Homosexuality is not explicitly outlawed in Egypt, Egyptian police have long made the lives of homosexuals a living hell. In 2001, 21 men were handed three-year jail sentences after cops raided a so-called ‘gay party’ on the Queen Nile boat.

Meanwhile 14 men were arrested at a sauna in Cairo’s El-Marg district in October last year and have since been charged with a variety of offences linked to so-called “indecent behavior.” In November, nine men were arrested on similar charges at a private party in 6th October City.