Charges dropped against men who stripped elderly Coptic woman in public
ICC Note: The three men who were accused of stripping an elderly Egyptian Christian woman in public have been released without punishment. Mrs. Thabet was attacked in June after rumors of her son’s extramarital affair roused a whole village against the family. The three men who were identified and testified against escaped without any justice, proving once again that Egyptian authorities do not stand up for the Christian population/ who is repeatedly brutalized in the country.
01/17/2017 Egypt (WWM): Egyptian authorities have dropped the charges against three men accused of publicly stripping naked a 70-year-old woman, following rumours her son had had an affair with a Muslim woman.
The authorities cited a “lack of evidence”, despite a public apology from the President and the woman, Soad Thabet, identifying the three men.
World Watch Monitor published witness accounts of the attack, which took place in June. An Egyptian bishop, Makarius of Minya (300km south of Cairo), called for “justice”, rejecting the practice of extrajudicial “conciliation meetings” that have long pressured Copts to give up legal rights. For a woman from an especially conservative rural culture, the trauma was particularly severe, and the attack hit global headlines.
“I feel let down for a second time,” Mrs Thabet told The Telegraph. “I feel that nobody is standing by our side.”
“I was hoping that they will be punished. The people who comfort me say that Jesus was himself stripped naked. Now, I complain only to God, and hope he brings justice. Is there anyone stronger than God?”
Meanwhile, Thabet’s son, Ashraf, who faces charges of adultery with Nagwa Ragab Fouad, is due in court later this month. Mrs Fouad, estranged wife of the man accused of whipping up the village against Thabet’s family, has denied – on national TV – any sexual relationship with the Christian.
Ashraf Thabet said: “If the law stands by the side of the culprits and the victim becomes culprit, then nothing will stop [them] from attacking us in the future.”
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