Abu Dhabi: A policeman suspected to have taken and distributed pictures of those arrested in connection with a gay wedding in Abu Dhabi has been taken into custody for questioning, an official said.

Lieutenant Colonel Najm Abdullah Al Hosani, Director of Community Police Department, said the General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police has started interrogation of the suspect. "If found guilty, he would stand trial," Lt Col Al Hosni said.

More than 20 young men were arrested at the gay party in a chalet in Ghantout.

The Abu Dhabi General Directorate of Police said agents from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested 26 men, some of who were dressed as women.

Half of the men, including UAE nationals, Arabs and Asians were dressed as women, with make-up and hairstyles, and the others were dressed in Arab attire."

The group had similar parties at hotels and chalets, and those dressed as women earned money as prostitutes.

On Monday UAE scholars and social experts denounced the "homosexual wedding," and stressed that such people should be punished by law.

According to Islamic Sharia Laws, a man who has intercourse with another man "should be executed", said Abdul Salam Mohammad Darwish, an Islamic scholar and social and family counsellor.

Darwish said, "It is scandalous. It is not part of the Islamic religion or UAE culture".

"Surely it was not the first time they met. They must have held parties and met in similar unacceptable and abnormal celebrations. There had been reports of similar incidents in other emirates," he said.

He warned against the increase in such deviant behaviour. "Some of the males who live an extravagant life became decadent," he said.

The counsellor urged the authorities to place those "sick men" in an intensive psychological and educational rehabilitation programme.

Colonel Najm Al Howsani, Director of Social Support Centre at Ministry of Interior, where the 26 men who had been arrested were referred to, said the suspects would undergo a psychological and physical therapy after the court rules into their case.