The boy, one among 52 others arrested in Cairo, was sentenced on September 18, and did not have access to legal representation for the first two weeks of interrogation, according to Human Rights Watch.

The teenager's name has not been published, the group says, due to his status as a minor. "Initial periods are very crucial and the [international] standards are very clear," Clarisa Bencomo, a researcher working the case at the Children's Rights Division, an affiliate of Human Rights Watch, told The Earth Times. "They are to have immediate access to legal council."

According to Bencomo, it was that lack of council that caused the boy to admit guilt to the crime. "This [Homosexuality] shouldn't be a chargeable offense under the international standards Egypt ratified," she said. HRW believes the boy was coerced into admission because with legal council withheld, the child was unaware that homosexuality was a punishable offense. "He had no idea what he was admitting to," Bencomo insists. "He was adamant that he had not abused his religion, but when they asked him if he had had sex with men, he said Oyes.' It was by this statement that the young man was subsequently charged with debauchery."

While Egyptian law does not criminalize homosexual acts, the obscenity charge is being brought under Article 9c of Law No. 10 of 1961 on the Combat of Prostitution. This law provides a custodial sentence of between three months and three years for "obscene behavior." The "contempt for religion" charge is a more serious one, and is punishable by six months to five years in prison.

Due to the vagueness of the initial charge--abusing religion--and the loopholes HRW claims the judges used to indict the young boy are due to Egypt's recent crackdown on "men who appear to be gay," Bencomo said. On November 10, four men were arrested for the same "obscene behavior" in Giza, a suburb of Cairo. These sentences have also been vilified by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

"This new case is eerily similar to the Cairo 52 case," said Scott Long, IGLHRC's Program Director. "Presumed homosexuals are arrested at random under the same law on prostitution, beaten in prison, and vilified by the media, while the police fabricate facts that do not add up."

On Monday, HRW sent a letter to the Prosecutor General of the trial that denounced the sentence was a violation of international standards. The sentence "was based on a confession that may have been extracted through torture and made before the boy was granted access to his family or an attorney," the letter that was drafted by Bencomo and his colleague Michael Bochenek. Torture, according to Bencomo, included whipping the soles of the feet with a leather strap, which often leaves the victim unable to walk for several days.

"It is becoming clearer that persecution of homosexuals is a major human rights issue in Egypt," Long said. "The international community should be clear with Egypt as well in demanding the Egyptian Government to stop these abuses now."