CAIRO: Egypt has arrested a suspect in the alleged gang rape of a woman in a luxury Cairo hotel, the prosecution said Thursday, in a case that has fueled a resurgent #MeToo movement.
The rape allegedly took place six years ago but the allegations only emerged online in July.
Names and pictures of suspects, who appear to hail from wealthy families, have circulated online, but AFP has been unable to verify their authenticity.
A statement from the prosecution on Thursday said that Amir Zayed had been arrested a day earlier while attempting to flee the country and was ordered “to be jailed for four days pending investigation into the assault of a girl in the Fairmont Nile City Hotel.”
Zayed is also accused of involvement in “a similar incident,” the prosecution added, without elaborating.
According to social media accounts, several men had drugged and raped the woman in 2014.
Reports on the incident were widely shared, including by Assault Police, an Instagram account with more than 180,000 followers that is dedicated to pushing for justice for rape and sexual assault survivors.
Authorities have placed other suspects in the case on an airport watch list and are pursuing them through the Interpol, the prosecution added.
On Wednesday, it said it was seeking to arrest a total of nine suspects, adding that seven had fled abroad following the dissemination of their identities on social media.
The prosecution launched a probe earlier this month after receiving a letter from the National Council for Women, which included a complaint from the woman who claimed she had been gang-raped at the Fairmont in 2014.
The hotel has said it had conducted an internal investigation but found “that at no time were any reports of the incident filed to the hotel, nor to the hotel’s tourism police.”
The accusations have added to Egypt’s resurgent #MeToo movement, which seeks to hold sexual predators in the deeply conservative country accountable for their actions.
Women in Egypt are often reluctant to speak out about sexual harassment, fearing public shaming and being blamed for dressing or acting “provocatively,” and often face threats of retaliation for exposing misconduct.
In July, dozens of women made shocking claims of sexual abuse and assault by a 22-year-old man, who is also member of the country’s wealthy elite.
The man was arrested and confessed to assaulting at least six girls, including one aged under 18, and to blackmailing the victims, according to prosecutors.
The recent cases, especially among Egypt’s elite, have highlighted that sexual assault and harassment — widely perceived to be more prevalent among the poorer classes — pervade all levels of society.
United Nations surveys have found that most Egyptian women have been subject to harassment ranging from catcalling to pinching and groping.
Egypt’s parliament earlier this month approved amendments to the criminal code granting victims of sexual assault the right to anonymity.
Egyptian authorities have criminalized sexual harassment since 2014, but many women complain that the problem remains rampant.
Egypt arrests suspect in 2014 hotel gang rape case
https://arab.news/z3eab
Egypt arrests suspect in 2014 hotel gang rape case
- Amir Zayed had been arrested on Wednesday while attempting to flee the country
- Authorities have placed other suspects on an airport watch list and are pursuing them through the Interpol
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
