Egypt: Manhunt underway for judge as body of his wife found buried on his farm 

An arrest warrant has been issued for a prominent judge after his wife was found buried on his remote farm, her face disfigured by nitric acid.

Prosecutors have said that 42-year-old TV host Shaimaa Gamal was beaten to death using a blunt instrument and then acid poured on her face so that she wouldn’t be recognised.

Ayman Haggag, who is also vice president of Egypt’s judicial body, the state council, reported his wife missing three weeks previously after allegedly going to pick her up from a mall and she didn’t turn up.

It has been reported that someone who helped Haggag came forward and informed the police what happened and where the body was buried.

Reports also state that Haggag had married Shaimaa in secret as his second wife.

A manhunt is underway to find Haggag, whose immunity as a judge has been lifted, as he was recently granted visas for Canada and Poland.

READ: Jailed Egyptian blogger entering danger zone in hunger strike

The news of Shaimaa’s death comes shortly after the stabbing of a university student by an admirer who became angry when she turned down his marriage proposals, shook Egypt.

Naira Ashraf’s death was caught on CCTV outside Mansoura University in a video that later went viral as she was stabbed to death in broad daylight.

Women’s rights campaigners have tirelessly tried to secure greater protection for women who are subject to domestic abuse and male violence in Egypt.

Authorities fail to protect females and instead prosecute them on charges of “debauchery” and “violating family values” when they defend sexual abuse victims or come forward to report sexual violence crimes.

Perpetrators themselves are often let off with very little punishment. In May 2020 a former member of Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party was released under a presidential pardon despite being convicted of killing Lebanese killer Suzanne Tamim.

It is believed that Hisham Talaat Mostafa ordered Suzanne’s killing after she turned down his marriage proposal to become his second wife.