2014 Cairo hotel gang rape case

Social media users in Egypt sparked controversy several times in 2020 over many cases related to harassment and rape, following which the judicial authorities moved to encourage victims to submit reports to the Public Prosecution. Among those cases was what was known as the case of Ahmed Bassam Zaki, in which several Egyptian girls said that they were harassed and raped by him, after which the authorities arrested him and the Public Prosecution opened an investigation into the accusations and an Egyptian court ordered his imprisonment pending the investigations.[2]

Egyptian actresses and users of social network sites during that period published details of many incidents of harassment. Many liken the campaign against harassment in Egypt to the one known as the #MeToo campaign, which exposed unethical practices against women in several countries.[2]

The Egyptian Parliament's Legislative Committee agreed to amend the Criminal Procedure Law to include a proposal submitted by the government to ensure the confidentiality of victims' data in crimes related to harassment when these victims go to report those crimes. In an attempt to overcome Egyptian social norms regarding complaints of sexual assault.[2]

According to the testimonies circulated, the incident dates back to April 2014, when a group of young men belonging to wealthy families raped a girl at a party at the famous Fairmont Hotel in Cairo, after they put anesthesia for her to lose her consciousness, and they took her to a room, raped her, and then signed the first letter of Their names, and they recorded the crime in a video that they sent to their friends as a show.[3][2]

Tweeters with the hashtag #Fairmont_Crime announced the names of the accused young men and published their photos, confirming that they were the accused in the incident, while others, in turn, said that those young men raped at least 6 girls, not one girl. The victim, who lives outside the country, confirmed through one of the posts she wrote on social media that they blackmailed her with the video that if she spoke and disclosed her hidden information, they would expose her.[3]

The lawyer for the Fairmont girl announced that her client was pregnant as a result of rape when she was 17 years old.[5]

• The first weeks of July 2020: The users of social networking sites were demanding an investigation into an alleged story that sparked widespread controversy during the sexual assault of a number of young people on a girl in the Fairmont Hotel, six years after its occurrence. According to accounts on social media, young Egyptians belonging to wealthy families lured one of the girls during a party at the "Fairmont Nile City" hotel to a hotel room after they put a drug in her drink, then took turns raping her and filmed the incident.[2]
• July 31, 2020: The Fairmont Hotel announced its commitment to assist the authorities and the competent authorities authorized if an official investigation is opened and to continue to provide its absolute support in this regard, declaring its sympathy for anyone who may have been affected by this "painful incident," according to their description.[6][7]
• August 4, 2020: The Egyptian Public Prosecution received a letter from the National Council for Women, accompanied by a complaint submitted by one of the girls to the Council about some people sexually assaulting her during 2014 inside the "Fairmont Nile City" hotel in Cairo.[7]
• August 5, 2020: The Egyptian Attorney General orders an investigation into the sexual assaults at the "Fairmont Nile City Hotel".[3]
• August 24, 2020: The Egyptian Public Prosecution orders the arrest and bringing of those accused of trespassing on a girl at the Fairmont Hotel, placing them on the travel ban lists and awaiting arrival for interrogation regarding what is attributed to them.[8][9]
• August 25, 2020: Security sources announced that some of the accused in the "Fairmont" case had fled the country as soon as the investigation began.[10]
• August 26, 2020: The prosecution clarifies the details and date of the escape of 7 defendants in the Fairmont case outside the country: “Two of the defendants left the country on July 27, 2020, and four others followed the next day, and the last of them left on July 29, 2020.”[11]
• August 27, 2020: The first accused in the case was arrested while trying to flee outside the country, and it was found that he was accused in an incident similar to that of the Fairmont girl case. His name was also revealed, and the Public Prosecution ordered his imprisonment for four days pending investigations.[8][12][13]
• August 28, 2020: Security forces arrest the second accused in the case while he was in the northern coast of Egypt, and the prosecution orders his detention pending investigations.[13]
• August 29, 2020: Lebanon detains 3 Egyptians accused of their involvement in the alleged gang rape in Cairo.[14][15]
• August 30, 2020: Lawyer and human rights defender Azza Soliman claimed that most of the witnesses in the case were arrested, or were kidnapped in a strange way.[16]
• August 31, 2020: The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of three defendants for four days in custody, including the daughter of a famous artist in Egypt, and the release of three others if each of them paid a financial guarantee of one hundred thousand pounds, and another with a guarantee of his place of residence, pending investigation of incidents in which they were accused on the occasion of The ongoing investigations into the incident of assaulting a girl in the Fairmont Hotel.[17][18] Thus, the number of defendants in what is known as the Fairmont case reached 16, the number of whom were detained pending investigation inside Egypt, in addition to three suspects who were arrested by the Public Security Forces in Lebanon.[19]
• September 10, 2020: Egyptian lawyer Mohamed El-Sayed filed a report with the investigation authorities, accusing the victim of gang rape in the "Fairmont" case of drug abuse and incitement to immorality and whoring.[20]
• September 11, 2020: Human Rights Watch condemned what was happening against the witnesses of the "Fairmont" case in Egypt, describing it as "arrest and defamation," and demanded that the charges against six people who had testified in the case be dropped, stressing the need to protect all who testified and to be tried from It appears that he was involved in the alleged incident. People who are close to the arrested witnesses said that the authorities leaked private photos of them that were on their phones after they searched them, and two men underwent anal examinations and a woman underwent a virginity examination, practices that violate medical ethics and are internationally condemned as insulting and may amount to torture.[4]
• September 24, 2020: Interpol extradited three of the men suspected in the gang rape from Lebanon back to Egypt for trial.[21]

• Feminism in Egypt
• Mass sexual assault in Egypt