An Egyptian TV host has been sentenced to one year in prison for interviewing a gay man.
Mohamed al-Gheiti, who had earlier expressed his homophobic views in many occasions on his TV show, was charged of “promoting homosexuality and contempt of religion” after he hosted a gay man on his talk show on a private TV station in August 2018.
Gheiti had blurred his guest’s face and hidden his identity as he talked about his sex work and his relationship with another man.
Later after the interview was aired, lawyer Samir Sabri filed a complaint against Gheiti in addition to the TV station suspension for two weeks for “professional violations”.
On Sunday, a court in Egypt sentenced Gheiti for one year in prison and to be put under surveillance for one year after serving his sentence.
Meanwhile, the news has flooded the Egyptian social media with more people weighing in on the controversy.
Gheiti has been one of the few controversial Egyptian TV hosts who is known for being a “pawn” for the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Sisi.
His sentence has mixed opinions, between condemnations of sentencing a TV host for hosting a gay…
Translation: “Mohamed el-Gheiti will be jailed for one year. Egypt has lost one of its most sycophantic men.”
Others considered what happened to Gheiti as karma after the Sisi government has used him for their own purposes for a long time.
Others expect that Gheiti will not be jailed, and that the whole media condemnations against him is just a conspiracy by the government and he will be back soon to TV as if nothing has happened.
Translation: “He won’t be jailed for a single hour, this is only a show.”
In 2017, the media council has banned the appearance of homosexuals on any outlet after a rainbow flag was waved during a musical concert in Cairo.
It is worth noting that homosexuality is not criminalized in Egypt, however, massive crackdowns have been launched against the LGBT+ community since the Cairo concert incident in 2017.
