VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #0454 0751521
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161521Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1917
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 000454 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI KWMN EG
SUBJECT: COURT SENTENCES NINE MEN TO DEATH FOR GANG RAPE 
 
REF: A. 09 CAIRO 44 
     ¶B. 08 CAIRO 2382 
     ¶C. 08 CAIRO 2251 
 
¶1. (U) On March 4, the Criminal Court in the Delta town of 
Kafr Al-Sheikh sentenced nine defendants to death and one 
juvenile to 15 years in prison for the armed gang-rape of 28 
year-old Fatma Mahmoud Amin in 2006.  One of the convicted 
men planned the rape as revenge against Amin's husband who 
refused his proposal to marry Mr. Amin's sister.  Announcing 
the verdict, the judge described the perpetrators who 
gang-raped Amin for three hours in a field as "merciless," 
and stated his hope that the court decision would deter such 
crimes in the future.  The ruling is subject to appeal. 
(Note:  Rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are common 
crimes in Egypt.  In 2008, the National Center for Social and 
Criminal Studies, a GOE-affiliated institute, asserted that 
approximately 20,000 cases of rape and sexual assault occur 
in Egypt each year.  End note.) 
 
¶2. (SBU) Women's rights activists welcomed the verdict.  One 
contact described the decision to us as an effective 
deterrent, and as a just decision in light of the pain 
suffered by the victim and her family.  Another women's 
rights advocate judged the ruling to be fair, despite her 
reservations about the death penalty, and pointed out that 
the judge chose the most stringent penalty available under 
law.  (Note:  The Egyptian penal code allows capital 
punishment in rape cases involving abduction and violent 
coercion.  End note)  In comments to the press, one prominent 
human rights lawyer rejected the death penalty as an 
effective deterrent for this type of crime, and claimed life 
imprisonment would have been a more just sentence.  Another 
human rights activist opined to the media that the GOE may 
draw the wrong conclusion from the verdict that the courts, 
not the government, will take the lead in preventing sexual 
violence. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Comment:  This death penalty verdict is significant 
as an unprecedented decision against nine men for a 
gang-rape, and follows the first two convictions for sexual 
assault in Egypt's history in the fall of 2008 (refs B and 
C).  The judge's choice of the most stringent penalty follows 
another judge's activist ruling in the November 2008 Cairo 
group sexual assault case, sentencing a man to a prison 
although no witnesses came forward to provide testimony, as 
required by law (ref B).  Women's rights activists believe 
that their public campaigns against sexual violence have 
influenced judges' thinking, and this verdict is an 
additional piece of evidence that judges are increasingly 
taking a harder line on violence against women. 
SCOBEY