Swinging in Egypt

Egyptian police have arrested a senior civil servant and his wife for organizing orgies and swinging parties and hosting wife swaps.

An investigation revealed that 44 Egyptian families responded to an Internet ad placed by the government employee and his wife soliciting participants for the orgies that were held over three months at the couple's house.

The couple had sex with three couples from among the applicants. The man said that the couples who came to his orgies had to have an official marriage contract and not the unofficial (Urfi) one. Otherwise, they were not admitted: The rest were rejected because they were not pleasant.

The accused man said he got the idea from a porn movie, and that his wife agreed. They send invitations to couples throughout Greater Cairo and received several responses.

The two defendants were detained for four days while the prosecution prepared an indictment bill to refer them to the criminal court.

Police also arrested a lawyer who was finalizing a wife swap and a couple from the Gulf who were seeking a swap for the weekend.

An Egyptian man and his wife convicted of setting up a swinger's club and organizing orgies and wife swaps were sentenced to long prison sentences yesterday.

Tolba Abdel Hafez and his wife Salwa Higazi were sentenced to seven years and three years respectively by the Agouza Criminal Court Saturday. 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 pseudonyms in emails to organize wife-swapping parties and orgies and managed to get 44 couples signed up for Cairo swinging sessions via the website.

Egyptian police have arrested a married couple who advertised on Facebook to sexually swap spouses and to host orgies at their Cairo apartment.

The case had been referred to prosecutors, an official said, adding that their Facebook posting had been titled Wife-swapping.

Extra-marital sex is frowned upon in Egypt, although couples go ahead with it after obtaining informal marriages, but this could lead to prostitution charges.