Alaa said the prosecutor refused to listen to his testimony and proceeded to verbally harass and threaten him with forced anal examinations. The prosecutor questioned him based on the police report, which Alaa said he signed under pressure. It stated that Alaa and his male friend, who was also arrested, “have sex with each other and were arguing in public over money related to their engagement in sex work.” I was detained for 15 days in al-Haram Police Station, in a cell the size of a freezer. I suffered the worst verbal abuse I have ever encountered by police officers and they forbade me from going to the bathroom for two days. They subjected me to a forced anal exam. They sexually assaulted me. I was sitting in the car waiting for a friend of mine when ten men came out of the blue and started hitting the car and hitting me on the shoulder, asking for my ID, without even identifying themselves. Salim was arbitrarily detained twice. In early 2019, Salim said, he was meeting a friend at night in Ramses, Cairo, when police officers approached him and demanded to see his ID. Police told Salim they were “cleaning the streets of faggots,” and proceeded to beat him “with all their might,” then handcuffed him and threw him in a police vehicle, he said. They took him to Azbakeya Police Station, and confiscated his phone, money, and personal belongings: Four officers then watched him take his clothes off while directing homophobic slurs at him, he said. They placed him in solitary confinement, claiming that it was for his protection:

Police forced three men, a transgender girl, and a transgender woman to undergo anal examinations. In one case, after a man presented his disability card to the police, officers inserted the card up his anus.

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I was verbally harassed and humiliated by the officers. One officer sexually harassed me, and one day, [the officers] pinned me down and shaved my head. Malak el-Kashif, 20, a transgender woman and human rights activist, was arbitrarily detained for four months, sexually harassed, and abused in a male prison in 2019. An administrative court in May 2020 dismissed the appeal her lawyer filed requesting the Interior Ministry to provide separate detention facilities for transgender detainees in accordance with their gender identity.

Alaa described being beaten, humiliated, and sexually assaulted by officers and detainees at the Bulaq Abu al-Ala Detention Center. He said: “The officer was imposing his authority as though he was a God punishing his servants.” Sarah Hegazy, who was detained in 2017 after she raised a rainbow flag at the concert, said police tortured her and incited fellow detainees to beat and sexually harass her. She took her own life in June 2020, in exile in Canada. The cases documented in this report, as recent as August 2020, demonstrate that her mistreatment is part of a larger and systematic pattern of abuse against LGBT people in Egypt.

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Every day feels like a year. Everyone who enters here is scared of my [trans identity] and harasses me physically and emotionally. The police officers enjoy harassing me. They call me by the name on my ID. The women detained alongside me here tell the officers, “His name is Hossam.” The officers beat and torture these women to make them say that I did things that never happened. We sleep on a rotten and smelly mattress with no covers. The government only sends us bread. But all the food comes from visitors. If I don’t get visitors for three days, I don’t eat for three days. The band speaks mainly about the oppression of LGBT people in the Middle East and its lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.

They said they were investigative police, then grabbed my arms, took my ID, and searched my phone for same-sex dating apps. They beat and cursed me, then pressured me to show them my personal photos. The men were detained for 26 days, pending trial. In court, Alaa said, the judge told him: “You are ruining Egypt. Find someone else to raise your children, I swear I will keep you in prison until you’re 36 years old and ruin your life.” The judge sentenced Alaa and his friend to six years in prison and six additional years of probation. The constitution prohibits torture, intimidation, coercion, and “physical or moral harming” of detainees and specifies that there is no statute of limitations on the crime of torture. It provides that a court should disregard any statement made under torture or threat of torture. All of those interviewed said police verbally harassed and subjected them to physical abuse ranging from slapping to being water-hosed and tied up for days, and nine said police officers incited other detainees to abuse them. Eight were victims of sexual violence, and four said they were denied medical care. Eight said that police forced them to sign confessions. All victims were held in pretrial detention for prolonged periods, in one case up to four months, often without access to legal counsel. I was interrogated by three officers at this prison, who insulted and cursed me. They said I was a faggot and drug addict. They threatened me with inciting prisoners to rape me if I didn’t confess to having had sex with men, but I didn’t. I just wanted to go to the prison cell and cry.They took me to Dokki Police Station, beat me so hard I lost consciousness, then threw me in a cell with other prisoners. They told them: “He’s a faggot” and told me “Careful not to get pregnant.” I stayed one week in that cell, and between the beatings by officers and assaults by other detainees, I thought I would not survive. take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to prevent and provide protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, perpetrated for reasons relating to the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim, as well as the incitement of such acts. Egypt has repeatedly rejected recommendations by several countries to end arrests and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Most recently, at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March, Egypt refused to recognize the existence of LGBT people, flouting its obligation to protect the rights of all within its jurisdiction without discrimination.