egyptian trial, photo by middle east voices

CAIRO, Egypt - According to the activist Engy Ghozlan of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR), nearly 200,000 rapes occur annually in Egypt. This figure was presented in response to a 2008 U.N. report which quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure which was significantly less. (Source: ECWR).

As in many countries rapes in Egypt are one of the most under-reported crimes, and until recently, many perpetrators weren't brought to trial because of lack of interests or cultural biases which blamed the woman for allowing herself to be raped.

In August 2014, a 17-year-old mentally disabled teenage girl walked into the Imbaba Police Station in Cairo's low-income neighbourhood of Imbaba to report her abduction by two men earlier that day. Instead of receiving just consideration of her charges, or even for the police to initiate an investigation, Khaled Abdel-Rahman Mohamed, the policeman on duty, inexplicably locked the teenager a cell.

Other female prisoners confirmed the testimony of the girl in which she stated that she was subsequently taken forcibly from the cell by Mohamed ostensibly for further questioning. It is alleged that he dragged her by her hair and raped her in the corner of the station. Two women in an adjacent jail cell watched the assault through a crack in the cell door. A camera also bore silent witness to the girl's ordeal and was crucial to proving the guilt of the officer.

Egyptian law permits rapists to be sentenced to death for the rape of any female under the age of 18; however, on 7 June 2015 the court sentenced Mohamed to life in prison.

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Patrice Ellerbe, Staff WriterLast Modified: 21:58 p.m. EDT, 28 January 2013

NEW DELHI, India - Weeks after the shocking death of the paramedical student in Delhi, according to Sandeed Joshi, a contributor of the news source, “The Hindu”, the Justice Verma Committee has ruled against recommending the death penalty even in the rarest of the rare rape cases, and also did not agree to lowering the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years of age.

The Justice Verma Committee is a group formed to further investigate crimes against women. The committee was given the task of suggesting solutions to further deal with the frequent sexual assault cases. They announced that the minimum sentence for a rapist should be pushed from 7 years to 10 years.

They also announced that when life in prison has been sentenced, the individual convicted must serve the remainder of their natural life in prison. The Justice Verma Committee also suggested that there be more action taken in forming a new authority that takes on issues dealing with education and non-discrimination of women.

Although there were speculations of getting rid of the death penalty, Verma now states they will “enhanced the punishment to the mean the remainder of life”. Many organizations focused on women and have expressed their strong disapproval of the death penalty.

Over the past 20 years, murder cases have declined as well as execution of death sentences since 1980; however, bringing on the death penalty for rape may not bring effects. The maximum punishment for rape is currently life in prison.

When it comes to reducing the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years of age, Verma did not favor. His reasons stated, if a 16 year old is sentenced to life in prison, it is likely that he will be released by the age of 30. There is no guarantee that the prisoner would be released as a person of higher morals.

In the past, the Committee has depicted the jails and juvenile homes as having a lack of rehabilitation and reformatory policies. If a convict is not counseled before leaving the facility, there is a strong possibility that they are leaving as the same person they came in as. If this is the case, there has been no improvement and no need for release. The convict will most likely return because they have not been evaluated or changed.

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Twitter: @nahmias_report Staff Writer: @PatriceEllerbe