This is a brief but satisfying follow-up to my diary First-ever criminal proceedings for gang rape in Egypt from last month. In that diary I reported that 13 men had been referred to trial by Egypt’s prosecution service ‘for alleged sex attacks on women at Cairo's Tahrir Square, including during inaugural celebrations for new President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’; they were charged with ‘kidnapping, raping, sexually attacking, attempting to murder and torturing the women’.
Reuters and The Globe and Mail now report that seven of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. In addition a 16-year-old defendent was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and a 19-year-old defendent was given two 20-year prison terms; it’s not clear whether they are concurrent or consecutive. The sentencing session was broadcast live on TV; the defendants, who according to Egyptian custom stood in cages, shouted ‘injustice’ when the verdicts were read, and their relatives attacked journalists.
The sentences can be appealed.
