TV host sentenced to year of hard labour for interviewing gay man

An Egyption TV host has been sentenced to a year of hard labour and fined for interviewing a gay man on his show.

Mohammed el-Gheiti was found guilty of “encouraging immorality” on his privately owned LTC TV channel and fined 3,000 Egyptian pounds (£130).

Homosexuality is not a crime in Egypt but is widely seen as taboo in the conservative, Muslim-majority country and authorities have been increasingly cracking down on the LGBT community.

They routinely arrest people on vague charges of “debauchery”, immorality or blasphemy.

The charges to Mr el-Gheiti came after a lawsuit filed by lawyer Samir Sabry, who is well known in Egypt for taking celebrities to court.

The TV host, who has voiced homophobic views on a number of occasions, interviewed a gay man on his show in August 2018.

The man, whose face had been blurred to conceal his identity, expressed regret in the interview over his sexuality and described his life as a prostitute.

Egypt's top media body, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, immediately took the channel off air for two weeks, citing "professional violations".

Mr Sabry, accused the TV host of revealing there to be financial gains of "practising homosexuality", state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reports.

Mr el-Gheiti, who is appealing against the ruling, was fined around 170 dollars (£130) and sentenced to a year of hard labour but does not have to carry out his punishment unless he loses the appeal.

In September 2017, authorities arrested dozens of people after several waved an LGBT rainbow flag at a Cairo concert.