Rights groups urge Egypt to halt crackdown on homosexuals

CAIRO – Two international rights groups called on Egyptian authorities on Saturday to halt their crackdown on people suspected of homosexuality following the waving of the LGBT rainbow flag at a recent concert in Cairo.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also urged Egypt, a majority Muslim country of some 95 million people, to call off the anal examination of people detained on suspicion of homosexuality to determine whether they were engaged in same-sex sexual relations.

They said the practice amounted to torture and called it "abhorrent" and scientifically unsound.