Two Egyptian policemen jailed 17 years for attempted rape

A Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced two Egyptian policemen to 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman.

Ibrahim Al-Rifaai received a ten-year term, while conscript Mohamed Taha was jailed for seven years.

The defendants are accused of arresting a woman without prior warrant and sexually assaulting her in the back seat of a patrol car in the Al-Sahel neighbourhood of Shoubra.

They were first arrested in December 2014 and initially released a few days later on bail of $140 each.

Former General Prosecutor Hisham Barakat referred the defendants to the criminal court in January 2015 after the forensic medicine authority’s report affirmed seminal fluids on the woman’s clothes matched those of the defendants.

Subsequent investigations found that the policemen ordered the woman to step out of the car and took her to the patrol car claiming they would drive her home. They then drove her to a remote area and attempted to rape her.

According to Egyptian law, attempted rape is considered sexual assault which carries a different charge to rape. The penal code states that the penalty for sexual assault ranges from three to seven years imprisonment.