Egypt court jails 9 over sexual assaults

Seven Egyptians were today sentenced to life in prison and two others to 20 years for sexually assaulting women at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square last month during inaugural celebrations of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
In a nationally televised session Wednesday, a Cairo criminal court judge sentenced the nine men, the first such heavy sentences against perpetrators of sexual violence following the government's decision to toughen penalties.
Three of them received multiple life sentences for taking part in different assaults.
At least nine incidents of mob sexual assaults and harassment in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square were documented between 3 and 8 June, when Sisi's supporters celebrated his election and inauguration.

Later, a horrific graphic video was posted on YouTube which showed a naked woman with injuries on her body being dragged through a large crowd towards an ambulance. The scene drew a massive public outcry.
The president apologised to her and promised that the state would "not accept that such incidents will take place in the future".

Sisi then ordered officials to enforce a new law making sexual assault a crime for the first time. Women's rights groups have in the past accused the Egyptian authorities of failing to tackle the issue.
The nine men convicted on Wednesday faced charges stemming from four different cases.

While Egyptian women's rights groups welcomed the new law criminalising sexual harassment, they called for a comprehensive law on violence against woman and a national strategy to implement it.
They reported that at least 500 women were raped or sexually assaulted by mobs between the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the start of 2014. Thousands of others were subjected to sexual harassment.