CAIRO: Egypt on Wednesday executed a man sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow student who rejected his advances, authorities said, in the culmination of a case that sparked outrage.
Prison authorities “carried out the death sentence issued against Mohamed Adel,” who was found guilty last year of the “premeditated murder” of fellow student Nayera Ashraf, after he confessed to the crime in court.
Adel was sentenced in a highly publicized two-day trial in June last year, after a video went viral appearing to show Ashraf being stabbed outside her university in Mansoura, 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Cairo.
She had previously reported her fears of attack to the authorities, and prosecutors had said messages from the accused “threatening to cut her throat” were found on her phone.
A series of high-profile femicides in Egypt last year triggered widespread anger and fears of copycat crimes.
Some social media users called for the perpetrators to be sentenced to death, while others said men must “learn to take no for an answer.”
Murder is a capital offense in Egypt, which carried out the world’s fourth highest number of executions last year, according to Amnesty International.
Patriarchal legislation and conservative interpretations of Islam have contributed to severely limiting women’s rights.
Women report being targeted by routine violence with little legal redress.
Nearly eight million Egyptian women were victims of violence committed by their partners or relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations survey conducted in 2015.
Egypt executes man over high-profile femicide
https://arab.news/49wud
Egypt executes man over high-profile femicide
Israel’s hostage forum releases AI-generated video of last Gaza captive
- The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling
JERUSALEM: An Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages released on Tuesday an AI-generated video of Ran Gvili, the last captive whose body is still being held in the Palestinian territory.
The one-minute clip, created whole cloth using artificial intelligence, purports to depict Gvili as he sits in a Gaza tunnel and appeals to US President Donald Trump to help bring his body back to Israel.
“Mr President, I’m asking you to see this through: Please bring me home. My family deserves this. I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” says the AI-generated image of Gvili.
Gvili was 24 at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
He was an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit and was on medical leave when he learnt of the attack.
He decided to leave his home and brought his gun to counter the Hamas militants.
He was shot in the fighting at the Alumim kibbutz before he was taken to Gaza.
Israeli authorities told Gvili’s parents in January 2024 that he had not survived his injuries.
The AI clip was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza.
The Forum said it was published with the approval of Gvili’s family.
“Seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is both moving and heartbreaking. I would give anything to hear, see and hold him again,” Gvili’s mother Talik said, quoted by the Forum.
“But all I can do now is plead that they don’t move to the next phase of the agreement before bringing Rani home — because we don’t leave heroes behind.”
The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.
In the first stage, Palestinian militants were expected to return all of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, militants have released 47 hostages.
In the next stages of the truce, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Florida later this month to discuss the second phase of the deal.
