Egypt man who strangled his fiancée sentenced to death

Mohamed Samir, who murdered his fiancée Kholoud Al-Sayed Farouk, has been sentenced to death by a court in Egypt.

In October last year Mohamed strangled his fiancée to death in Port Said after she broke off the engagement.

Mohamed then threatened to kill her, and the following day broke into Kholoud’s house and murdered her.

During the trial the court heard an audio recording of Kholoud begging a colleague for help as Mohamed attacked her, reports the state-run Egypt Today.

A CCTV camera on the flat opposite captured Mohamed entering Kholoud’s house at around the time of the murder.

A spate of femicides have rocked Egypt over recent months, including the widely covered murder of student Naira Ashraf who was beaten and stabbed to death outside Mansoura University after she turned down a marriage proposal.

Her killer, Mohamed Adel, harassed Naira for a year but the police did not impose a restraining order on him.

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Mohamed Adel was also sentenced to death, with a court asking that his execution be televised to the nation.

However, human rights groups condemned the court ruling, which did not prevent other perpetrators striking again.

Salma Bahgat and Amani Abdul Karim have since been murderer by men after they turned down marriage proposals.

Islam Mohamad stabbed Salma to death 17 times after threatening her on social media.

Rights groups are calling for less censorship on NGOs so that they can educate new generations on violence against women.

They also condemned the absence of legal protection for women so that such murders go unpunished.

“This escalation of violence against women is a result of the state and society’s normalisation of violence and the weakness of laws that protect women, in addition to the clear escalation of violence in society,” Shaimaa Elbanna, spokeswoman for the Committee for Justice told MEMO.

“It is important for justice to be served in women’s murder cases, but there are more effective methods than death sentences. To effectively confront the phenomenon of violence, we need change on many levels.”

“We need effective laws, we need a civilised executive authority that understands the position of the victim or survivor, and an educational and awareness system to reject violence against women instead of inciting them.”