An Egyptian man and his wife convicted of setting up a swinger's club and organizing orgies and wife swaps were sentenced to a total of ten years in prison , local press reported Sunday.Tolba Abdel Hafez, a 48-year-old civil servant, and his wife Salwa Higazi, a 37-year-old schoolteacher, were sentenced to seven years and three years respectively by the Agouza Criminal Court Saturday, the state-owned al-Gomhuria reported. The couple will be on probation after their release for the same time period. In sentencing the pair, the judge described the case as "one of the worst crimes committed in the name of humanity," adding that the crime was unique for its perversity and went beyond the taboos of extra-marital sex.
The Cairo couple, who have children, were arrested in October 2008 on prostitution charges and confessed to having sexual relations with three other couples. The couple used the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira on a website and in emails to organize wife-swapping parties and orgies and managed to get 44 couples signed up for Cairo swinging sessions via the website. Hafez had said he got the idea from a porn movie, and that his wife agreed.
Rights groups have criticized a 1961 law that can be used to prosecute suspects because it defines certain sexual acts as prostitution even if no money changes hands.