Yesterday, Tuesday, the North Cairo Criminal Court issued two very important verdicts in sexual assault cases that opened recently through social media. The first was life imprisonment for two of the fugitives accused (Sherif El-Koumi and Youssef Kara) of raping a girl in the North Coast, and 15 rigorous imprisonment A year on the third defendant, Amir Zayed, in the same case.
Another sentence was also sentenced to life imprisonment, Michael Fahmy, after he was convicted of kidnapping and forcibly degrading six underage girls, and his wife was acquitted of the charges of participating with him in the crime, without we still know the merits of the ruling.
What are the two cases, and how do you open and what is the importance of these provisions? This is what we will know in this post.
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What are the details of the two cases?
– The first case took place in a tourist village on the northern coast in 2015, during which the victim was drugged, raped by intercourse between the accused and photographed without her knowledge.
– Its details are very similar to the Fairmont case that took place in 2014 and revolves around the incident of gang rape and filming of a girl in the Fairmont Hotel, after she was drugged and taken to one of the hotel rooms. This is the case in which the prosecution kept the investigations for “insufficient evidence.”
So, what is the relationship between the two cases? Two of the defendants in the Sahel case, are also accused in the Vermot case, and when the case was opened last year on Facebook and the prosecution began investigating the matter, the victim submitted a report to the prosecution against the defendants and told what happened with her, and this prompted the prosecution to open a new case on the sidelines of the case the basic.
The two cases first appeared publicly through pages on Facebook and Instagram. The details of these crimes were published without disclosing the identity of the victims, and it was clear in everything that was published that there was a fear of opening the issue, for fear of the oppression of the accused’s families, some of whom are “high-ranking dignitaries.” In the country”.
– This let the prosecution ask anyone with some details or witnesses that they appear and promised to protect the confidentiality of their data, and this was useful for the victim in the Sahel case, unlike what happened in the Vermont case, in which some witnesses were arrested and accused of drug abuse or “perversion” cases sexually.”
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The second case, in which the ruling yesterday, appeared to the public in the same way, about a person claiming to be a deacon in the Orthodox Church, and a dermatologist and venereologist.
This person was distributing his book, which he called “a public high school in the hands of Christ” to girls through church offices, and luring victims of those who complain to him about any psychological problem or pressure they face, and convincing them that he offers psychological treatment with enemas.
According to the “Speak Up” page, which published extensively about Michael Fahmy’s violations until he was brought to trial, about 70 girls from different cities and governorates gave their testimonies to the page, and told what happened to them during the dispute from 2008 to 2019.
– During this entire period, he was luring a victim to another, and because of his threats, and the victims’ lack of knowledge of each other, a few people preferred to know what happened, and he did not file complaints against him throughout this period.
– The verdict issued against Fahmy is a punishment for his violations against 6 girls only, because not all victims have submitted official reports.
– Yesterday’s session was devoted to hearing Fahmy’s defense pleading, but after pleading the judge reserved the case for judgment on the same day, and this is not usual, except in the case of clarity of the crime, according to the victims’ lawyer Michael Raouf.
– Michael Fahmy and his wife, Sally Adel, who was accused of facilitating his crimes, and being with him during the assault on some of his victims, were referred to trial, but it is not clear why she was acquitted, and the merits of the ruling are still pending, and it is expected to be issued within a month. This ruling is not final, and is not subject to appeal, but it is a good step in the direction of proving the rights of the victims and convicting the criminals.
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– This is not the first case in which a sexual aggressor has been judged in the recent period, and was preceded by a ruling against Ahmed Bassam Zaki, who was also convicted of luring girls to his home and assaulting them, and threatening them with scandal if they talked about what happened.
Also, two months ago, a judge and two other people were sentenced to 15 years in prison. They deceived a girl and persuaded her to come to Alexandria to attend a real estate conference, lured her to a tourist village and raped her there.
– As we have noted, social networking sites played a major role in connecting the victims to each other, gathering evidence and helping to convict criminals who preferred for years without accountability or punishment.
The role of the prosecution and the judiciary in cases like this is the most important, and we still remember that some other cases were waiting to be dealt with more justice.
– The one who helped pass a verdict on the defendants in the Al-Sahel case said that the victim presented to the Public Prosecution a video of the incident, in which two of the defendants assaulted the victim, appeared inside the house of the third defendant, while the Public Prosecution closed the Vermont case due to the lack of a complete copy of the video of the incident, and despite the presence of Other evidence and clips from the original video of the incident, and this is what some lawyers criticized and said that it was an attempt to spoil the case so that some of the “adult” children were accused in it.
We are also waiting for the prosecution to fulfill its promise to protect witnesses, and the charges against the witnesses arrested during the investigations of the Vermont case, which we talked about in detail in a previous post, are dropped. You can see it from this link:
– Judicial and legal tracks that protect victims and witnesses are the only way to achieve prompt justice in sexual assault cases, and to have a strong deterrent to any criminal who may be imagining that he has escaped his crime.
We must support our daughters and sisters and stand in their back so that they take their rights from harassers, rapists and anyone who violates their body.
Living in the most expensive compound in which no one can live, and that you would like your sons and daughters to the most expensive private schools and universities in Egypt. This is not a guarantee that your children will live in a suitable human environment that will truly protect them. The real protection is that the community is a safe environment for stats and they secure the account of any new criminal.
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