A British pensioner released after being jailed for “homosexual acts” in Morocco has condemned the conditions he was kept in.
Ray Cole (69), from Deal in Kent, flew back into Gatwick after spending 20 days in jail in Marrakesh.
He was detained, along with his friend Jamal Jam Wald Nass, when police found “homosexual images” on his phone.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office guidelines state that homosexuality is a crime in Morocco.
Cole said: I’ve seen things I never knew existed. It’s not a prison, it’s a concentration camp.”
He said prison conditions were “horrendous”, with inmates as young as 10 and as old as 90 being held “for nothing,” the BBC reported.
“I can hardly move my arm now, from 20 nights sleeping on the floor – I just want to go home and sleep in a soft bed,” he said.
He said the attitudes to homosexuality in Morocco “are about 100 years out of date”.
Cole was unsure what had happened to 20-year-old Nass, though he suspected he was still being held in prison.
“They seemed to think that I was some kind of sex tourist, but I’m not and I wasn’t – and I won’t leave this, I can’t,” he said.