After Amal Fathi sentence to two years’ imprisonment: ECRF warns Egyptian women that publicly opposing to sexual harassment may expose them to imprisonment for publishing false news
October 2nd 2018
ECRF warned Egypt’s women today that public discussion of the incidents of harassment that they face may lead to accusing them of spreading false news and imprisoning them.
Maadi Misdemeanors Court, on September 29th 2018, ruled to imprison the victim of sexual harassment, Amal Fathi, to two years and a fine of 10 thousand pounds and a bail of 20 thousand pounds to suspend the implementation temporarily until the Court of Misdemeanors appellant appeal in case No. 1997 of 2018 misdemeanors.
The court convicted Amal Fathi in all charges against her, and sentenced her to; a year in prison on the charge of broadcasting false news that would disturb public security (Article 102 bis of the Penal Code), another year in prison for possession of obscene video (Article 178 Penal Code), a fine of LE 10,000 for the insult charge, which includes a breach of honor (Article 306 of the Penal Code), and a bail.
The bail and the fine were paid, and the hearing of the appeal was held before the appellant’s misdemeanor court. She is, however, still in custody based on another fabricated case.
Amal Fathi, the wife of Mohammed Lutfi ‘s, ECRF’s Executive Director, was arrested on Friday May 11th 2018 from her home, on the back of recording a video on Facebook a few days before. In that video, she reported that she had been subjected to sexual harassment on the same day, talked about the significant prevalence of harassment in Egypt.
The video was stolen, downloaded and then re-uploaded for by Facebook pages, YouTube accounts affiliated to government entities or its supporters and paparazzi, as a widespread electronic campaign intended for moral assassination and defamation of Amal Fathi.
Although the defense provided evidence of that and the testimony of Amal Fathi’s psychiatrist about her suffering from chronic depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of previous incidents of harassment in her life, and the testimony that video was only a cry of pain from a person who was sexually harassed and going through therapy.
Medical reports prepared by doctors at Al-Qanater prison – where she is imprisoned – have reported that she is suffering from chronic depression and bipolar personality disorder, and that the continuation of her imprisonment worsened her psychological condition, that she her left leg was temporarily paralyzed for two weeks and she suffered from frequent panic attacks.
