Life sentence to 7 Egyptian for sexual assaults in Tahrir

A Cairo court has sentenced Wednesday to seven youths to life imprisonment and two children to 20 years in prison for sexually harassing several women in Tahrir Square in Cairo. The attacks, which occurred during the celebrations for the inauguration of Abdelfatá  Al Sisi, reawakened the attention of the international community and the first political dust to the new president. Al Sisi jumped on stage asking forcefulness and exemplary sentences seem to follow that path.

The nine defendants are convicted of rape, harassment,  theft and possession of arms, among other charges. Three other defendants have not yet been convicted. According to defense lawyers, quoted by Efe, only two avoided life imprisonment merely for being underage. The lawyers added that they will appeal the ruling, which is actionable.

A few hours after the assaults occur in Tahrir Square last June, the government reported that it had arrested more than a dozen involved, of which several of them claimed to have nothing to do with what happened. A policeman was honored to protect a woman in the Tahrir Square and the Ministry of Interior received express orders to stop these incidents.

Abdelfatá Al Sisi went to the hospital before the television cameras to visit the victim and ask ” forgiveness on behalf of all Egyptians.” The government then put to work before the embarrassment posed images of the attack, which had been recorded with a mobile phone and posted on the Internet.

Just a few days before had come into force an amendment to the Criminal Code that harden punishment for such crimes. Under the new legislation, sexual abuse involving physical assault could be punished with imprisonment from two to five years and fines of between 1,000 and 2,000 euros. Although in no case includes such severe penalties as known on Wednesday in the first trial of its kind since the implementation of the legislation.

The lawyers condemned the lack of evidence and the speed of the process, which ended only a month and a half after the attacks, compared with most matters that pass through the Egyptian courts. The human rights organizations have called on numerous occasions that sentences are applied against such attacks. Associations such as the Egyptian feminist group Nazra regret that the definition of harassment ” is very vague.”

According to an independent study by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights Egyptian recognize virtually all have been sexually abused at some time in their lives. Something that multiplies coinciding with the celebration of festivals, during large gatherings, or recently in public transport in the demonstrations. Women’s groups complain that since the riots that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 have been more than 500 such attacks in public places and regret that any government has addressed the issue so far. The last example indicates that the new administration is willing to tackle the problem, although the methods arouse legal questions.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on Jul 18 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.