British Tourist Arrested In Morocco For 'Homosexual Acts'

A British tourist is claiming he spent 20 days in a Moroccan jail for reportedly practicing homosexual acts in the North African country.

Ray Cole, a 69-year-old gay man from Great Britain, was reportedly arrested in Morocco and sentenced to four months in prison for practicing homosexual acts. The man was freed after only 20 days after his lawyers were able to successfully get their client released from the prison.

"It's not a prison, it's a concentration camp," Cole told ITV News after returning from the prison to his family in London. "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."

Cole, who was visiting a friend in the country, was arrested at a bus stop after police said they found what they believed to be "homosexual images" on his cell phone. Cole, who will soon turn 70, called the conditions in Moroccan jail "horrendous" and said there are prisoners as young as 10 and as old as 90 being forced into the jail for small offenses.

The British tourist reportedly found out he was going home from prison guards, who were supposed to transfer him to another prison but instead had a different conversation with him."But then they said they were sending me home," Cole recalled.

"And they offered me the choice of spending the night in Marrakesh or getting the next flight [home]."

Cole's son, Adrian, helped gain international support for his father's release by posting about the plight on Facebook. "The prison does not segregate, so he is sharing with murderers, rapists, pedophiles etc," the 41-year-old son wrote on Facebook.