Egyptians tie up TikTok star after ‘selling people’ | Middle East News

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An Egyptian founder TikTok has been arrested after he and a co-accused charged with kidnapping and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
In recent years in a case of almost one year, a court in Cairo on Sunday sentenced Haneen Hossam, 20, out of 10 years in prison, and fellow judge Mawadah al-Adham, 23, who was present, for six years.
The court also fined two university students 200,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 13,000) for encouraging women to participate in a video-sharing program in exchange for money.
Hossam was arrested in Cairo and taken to the Public Prosecution, AFP reporters said, according to a security official.
Complaints
Hossam’s lawyer, Hani Sameh, said on Monday that he would appeal the sentence.
“We call for the case to be reversed because there is a conflict between the verdict and the right of the court to rule,” Sameh said.
“We hope he’ll take less prison or release him,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Hours before his arrest, Hossam recorded a video in which he asked President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to pardon him.
“Ten years! I have done nothing wrong to deserve this. I have been in prison for 10 months and I did not say anything when I was released … Why do you want to arrest me again?” He cried.
He added: “They have wronged me, and I have done nothing. I’m really dying. Save me. My mother is about to have a stroke when the verdict is handed down. ”
Damage to directors on TV
Several women have been accused of “promoting sexual immorality” because of their anti-Egyptian behavior, and the fight has reached the internet as the use of social networking sites by Egyptian youth.
Hossam, who has nearly 900,000 followers on TikTok, was one of Egypt’s leading journalists who was sentenced to two years in prison in July 2020 for promoting sexism by encouraging women to make money through television.
She was arrested after posting a video on Instagram and explaining how women could make $ 3,000 by publishing videos using a video-making program like Likee, which officials interpret as promoting women’s sex work online.
The other four members of the group were al-Adham, who was found guilty of sharing “inappropriate” photos and videos with his millions of Instagram followers, as well as three men found guilty of helping the two women. Al-Adham once had three million followers on TikTok and has 1.4 million followers on Instagram.
The appellate court reversed the decision in January, but instituted new cases involving human trafficking. Five judges were released in February after serving eight months in prison.
But on Sunday, all five were convicted of human trafficking and fines.
Hossam was given a longer sentence – 10 years – by al-Adham and the three men were sentenced to six years in prison.
His lawyer, Sameh, said Hossam received a harsher sentence because he did not appear in court, even though he “had the right to refuse to come.”
Civil rights groups oppose the ruling
The decision has angered activists who have condemned the sentencing of the two women as part of an Egyptian crackdown on anti-apartheid activists.
“The decision is harsh and exaggerated,” said Reda Eldanbouki, director of the Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness.
“Such a decision gives them the right to freedom of expression and expression and to aim to improve the performance of women’s bodies and to improve their performance,” she said.
Eldanbouki said the ruling gives women with unlicensed letters such as “family protection”.
Entessar el-Saeed, a women’s rights activist and director of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law, said government officials were choosing women – not men – in an effort to “protect” families.
“We can see some videos and posts on social media and men justifying rape without answering. Does this not violate the principles of marriage? ”El-Saeed asked.
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