British Gay Man Released from Moroccan 'Concentration Camp'

A 70-year-old British man was released from a filthy Moroccan jail on Tuesday after serving 20 days for homosexuality, which is illegal in the north African nation.

Ray Cole — a former magazine publisher from Kent — was arrested with a Moroccan male companion on September 18 while the two were waiting for a bus. Police used photos on Cole's cell phone showing him with his Moroccan friend to convict him. The British embassy was not informed of Cole's arrest and his son did not know where his father was for nearly a week. On October 2, Cole was sentenced to four months in prison, but his son enlisted the help of British officials to get the sentence reduced or reversed.

Cole was unexpectedly released on Tuesday and caught the first flight back to the U.K. He described his experiences in prison to Pink News:  “You would not believe it, it’s horrendous. It’s not a prison, it’s a concentration camp. People are in there from the age of 10 to 80 and 90s for nothing. I can hardly move my arm from sleeping on the floor.”