Egypt prosecution refers dentist accused of sexually harassing four men to criminal court
El-Sayed Gamal El-Din, , Tuesday 9 Feb 2021
The defendant has been detained since 26 January, nearly four months after victims posted a petition against him online


Egypt's prosecution referred on Tuesday a famous dentist to criminal court over charges of indecently assaulting four men in his clinic by force.



In an official statement, the prosecution said it built the case on the testimonies it obtained from six eyewitnesses as well as on a report issued by the General Department for Criminal Evidence, which examined the defendant's phone and "some video clips of him."



In late January, the prosecution said in a statement that the defendant had a three-year relationship with one of his male clients, video-recorded their encounters and used the videos to blackmail the young man in to continuing their relationship or he would post the clips on to Facebook.



The dentist was arrested in late January, nearly four months after a lawyer of three males filed an official petition against him, accusing him of "sexually harassing them and inciting them to commit debauchery with him."



The petition was pushed by a wave of online testimonies that floated up to the surface last summer accusing the well-known dentist of harassing patients while receiving dental care at his clinic.



The online testimonies came amid a MeToo wave, which encouraged several sexual abuse victims to come forward and report to the authorities any sexual misconduct incidents they had experienced, many of which have been under investigation, such as the infamous case of the Fairmount group rape, while others are being processed at courts, such as the case of Ahmed Bassem Zaki.



However, it is unusual for men in Egypt to come forward with such allegations due to social stigma and masculinity issues.



TV Commercial Director and Singer Tameem Younis and Actor Abbas Abul-Hassan are among the plaintiffs, which is one of the reasons that the case gained widespread attention on social media.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/402677.aspx