A 17-year-old Egyptian was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison for “debauchery with men” in connection with the trial of 52 people on gay sex charges, a judicial source said. Mahmud Abdel Fatah, whose sentencing was based on confessions made during interrogation, will also serve three years probation, the sources said. The trial itself is to continue on Wednesday. The defendants, mostly in their 20s, were arrested May 11 on a Nile riverboat nightclub. The court, whose verdict cannot be appealed, could sentence them to as much as five years in prison if convicted. The two main defendants stand accused of “exploiting the Islamic religion to spread extremist ideas” as well as practicing gay sex “as part of the group’s rituals in front of the remaining defendants and others with the aim of insulting the heavenly religions and sparking civil strife.” The remaining 50 defendants are charged with “practicing debauchery with men.” The practice of homosexuality is not explicitly prohibited under Egyptian law, which is based on Islamic, or sharia, law. However, numerous statutes sanction conduct deemed to be an affront to public morality. – AFP