Egyptian Court Condemns Tahrir Square Sexual Assaults With Seven Life Sentences - the Wire
An Egyptian judge has sentenced seven men to life in prison for sexually assaulting women during public rallies in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The sentences - the first of their kind - were for four different incidents of sexual assault and were televised nationally. One charge stemmed from the inaugural celebrations last month for Egypt president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, where the mass attacks sparked a rare national discussion on sexual violence after an amateur video uploaded to YouTube showed a mass rape of a 19-year-old woman.
El-Sisi had pledged during his campaign he would “vigorously enforce the law and take all necessary measures to combat sexual harassment, an unacceptable form of conduct, alien to the best principles of Egyptian culture.” He followed through on the eve of his inauguration, when his government amended the penal code by adding a broader definition of sexual harassment, as well as longer jail terms and harsher fines for attackers.
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