In January 2022, Egypt’s Public Prosecution ordered the referral of five defendants to a criminal court over charges that included sexual trafficking and blackmailing a minor girl in the Nile Delta Gharbiya governorate.
Passant Khaled, a 16-year-old high school student, committed suicide in late December by swallowing a pesticide after a number of young men sextorted her and circulated photos of her in her village.
The prosecution had also charged the five men with exploiting the vulnerability of the victim by threatening to publish reported obscene photos of her with the aim of sexually exploiting her and forcing her to into indecent acts.
The case had caused a huge uproar on social media, with users launching a campaign calling for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.
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