Cairo: Egyptians have reacted with shock at the country's first known case of wife-swap involving married couples.
Earlier this week, police arrested the couple, using the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira, who had allegedly set up a wife-swapping club via the internet. A total of 44 married couples were alleged to be members of the club, according to security sources.
A human rights group in Egypt slammed the police for snooping on couples accused of wife-swapping in the conservative country.
"The case raises serious concerns about due process and the privacy rights of those arrested, especially in light of press reports about police interception of defendants' electronic correspondence," Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said.
The two main suspects, confessed in questioning to having organised orgies in their apartment in Giza, south of Cairo, the sources added.
Magdy, 48, told investigators he had suffered sexual impotence after he retired from work six years ago and had to see pornographic films and websites, the semi-official Al Jumhuria newspaper reported yesterday.
"I stumbled on a website on wife swap run by a Jewish Kurd in northern Iraq, who explained the idea to me and encouraged me to promote it in Egypt through my own website. I suggested the idea to my wife, who liked it," he added. They have two children.
The husband told prosecutors he had convinced his wife, a 37-year-old Arabic teacher, of the idea of "a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreating between consenting married couples".
The couple said they had insisted that partners involved in the alleged orgies be legally married and show their officially registered marriage contracts, the security sources said.
"My wife and I began telling our close married friends and acquaintances about it and many of them willingly attended at least five swinging parties we held in our home, as well as three orgies at other addresses," Magdy, the main defendant, was quoted as saying in investigations.
The couple and their accomplices could be charged with facilitating prostitution, which carries a sentence of up to three years in jail, under the Egyptian law.
- With inputs from agencies
