An employee at Cairo International Airport has been convicted of taking non-consensual photos of a woman at the airport and has been sentenced to three years in prison and an EGP 20,000 fine.

The Cairo misdemeanour court convicted the defendant of taking photos of the victim that are of a sexual nature and violating her privacy.

The incident went viral on Monday when Egyptian blogger and influencer Basma Bishy recounted the story on livestream of how she caught the employee taking photos behind her back as she was retrieving her luggage at Cairo International Airport following her arrival from Beirut.

The employee denied any wrongdoing when confronted by Bishy and her husband.

As soon as she finished streaming the incident online and the video went viral, authorities in the airport arrested the employee and found photos of the victim as well as those of other female travelers.

The prosecution said in a statement that the employee claimed to have taken the photos to document and report over-crowdedness to his managers.

On Wednesday, the prosecution referred the employee to an urgent trial.

This is a first degree ruling that can be appealed.