Saudis Round Up 92 More Gays

Malcolm Thornberry:

Despite international condemnation Saudi Arabia continues mass arrests of men suspected of being gay. On the weekend Saudi heavily armed security forces burst into a building in Riyadh and arrested 92 men.

Al-Wifaq news, which has close links to the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry, quotes officials as calling the venue a "deviants' party" - a term frequently used in describing gays.

The paper also says the men were drunk and had taken drugs.

Homosexuality is illegal in the Saudi kingdom and punishable by by flogging, lengthy prison terms or death under Sharia Islamic law. Use of alcohol or drugs is also illegal.

Al-Wifaq reports that some of the men were foreign nationals - from Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria and Lebanon.

It also says that some were dressed in women's clothes. It is not known if they were men in drag or transsexuals.

In March month, 110 men were arrested at what was described as a "gay wedding" in the city of Jeddah.

About eighty men were later released. The remaining men were sentenced to prison and floggings.

Four of the men (two Saudi Arabians, a Jordanian and a Yemeni) were sentenced by a court in Jeddah to 2,000 lashes and two years' imprisonment, and 31 others to 200 lashes and six months to one year in prison.

The sentences prompted an appeal to the government by Amnesty International. There has been no response from the government.

A day prior to the March arrests, a gay couple was beaded in a public execution in the northern town of Arar, near the Iraq border. The pair had been convicted of killing a blackmailer who had threatened to expose them to authorities.

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