Egypt TV host Mohamed al-Ghiety jailed for interviewing gay man

An Egyptian TV presenter has been sentenced to one year of hard labour for interviewing a gay man last year.A court in Giza also fined Mohamed al- Ghiety to be put under surveillance for one year after serving his sentence, Mr Sabry said.The verdict could be appealed against and suspended if Ghiety paid bail of 1,000 Egyptian pounds, pending the appeal's outcome, he added.Egypt's media council banned homosexuals from appearing on any media outlet after a rainbow flag was raised at a concert in Cairo in 2017, in a rare public show of support for the LGBT community in the conservative, mainly Muslim country.A crackdown was also launched on suspected homosexuals with dozens of people arrested, in a move decried by human rights groups.The authorities rely on a 1961 prostitution law that criminalises "habitual debauchery" to charge people who they suspect of engaging in consensual homosexual conduct.Mr Sabry was also the lawyer who filed a case against Egyptian actress Rania Youssef on charges of "inciting debauchery" over a see-through outfit she wore at an awards ceremony last year. He later dropped the case after Ms Youssef apologised.He has filed hundreds of similar cases in recent years.