Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court has sentenced 11 men accused of homosexuality to jail terms of between three and 12 years, legal sources said.

The defendants were arrested in a flat in the leafy Cairo suburb of Agouza in September last year.

The court convicted them of "debauchery and incitement to debauchery", the charges generally used to prosecute alleged homosexuals in Egypt as the law does not formally prohibit same-sex relations.

Late on Sunday, it sentenced three of them to 12 years, three to nine years, one to six years and four to three years.

Egypt's use of the debauchery law to prosecute and jail gay men has drawn condemnation from human rights groups.