A seguito di una nuova ondata di arresti in Egitto di persone omosessuali compiuti dalla polizia attraverso l'adescamento su Internet, Marco Cappato (Eurodeputato Radicale della Lista Bonino) e Ottavio Marzocchi (Radicali) hanno predisposto e depositato al Parlamento europeo un'interrogazione che sprona il Consiglio e la Commissione europea a esprimere preoccupazione alle istituzioni egiziane a tal riguardo, e richiede loro di seguire da vicino le prossime udienze del processo "Queen Boat". Segue il testo dell'interrogazione:


Violation of fundamental rights and freedoms grounded on sexual orientation in Egypt

According to AFP, on the 9th of January 2003 the Egyptian police has arrested a 30-year-old man after chatting with him on an Internet website he had set-up to seek potential partners and luring him to meet them. Police, in an undercover operation, chatted with the man over the Internet passing themselves off as a potential gay lover and arranged to meet with him. At the meeting place, they arrested him. According to the same press agency, on December 22, another Egyptian citizen, a gay dentist, who had created a similar website was arrested in the same manner. Furthermore on January 25, those Egyptians rounded up in May 2001 at an evening boat party on the Nile and accused of gay acts will appear for another hearing in their re-trial. Which initiatives did and will the Commission/the Council take on the repeated and serious violation of citizens' fundamental rights in Egypt on grounds of sexual orientation? Did the Commission/ the Council express EU concern on those new arrests to the Egyptian authorities? Is the Commission/ the Council following the hearings of the Queen Boat trial?