A human rights group in Egypt on Monday slammed police for snooping on couples accused of wife-swapping in the conservative nation and arresting them on prostitution charges.
The main accused in the case, a 48-year-old civil servant and his teacher wife (37) were detained last week for allegedly organising wife-swapping parties and orgies via a website run by an Iraqi Kurd, local media reported.
The Cairo couple, who have children and used the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira on the website and in emails, could face up to three years in prison if convicted of facilitating prostitution.
”The case raises serious concerns about due process and the privacy rights of those arrested, especially in light of press reports about police interception of defendants’ electronic correspondence,” said Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
”We’re also of course worried that police seem to be still going after many people based on the intercepted emails of the two main defendants.”
The couple confessed to having sexual relations with three other couples, although at least 44 couples signed up for Cairo swinging sessions via the website, and several other suspects — including a lawyer — were arrested.
Magdy reportedly insisted that couples present a marriage contract before indulging in any activities, fearing that they might be using a temporary, or orfi, Islamic marriage certificate in the pursuit of pleasure.
”I refused couples who had an orfi marriage because they’re completely different. One of them could tear up the marriage contract and file a complaint with the authorities,” independent daily Al-Masry al-Youm quoted Magdy as saying during questioning.
Magdy told prosecutors that he had convinced his wife of the idea of ”a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreation between consenting married couples”, the English-language Egyptian Gazette said. – AFP
