Anti-harassment activist released from jail

CAIRO: Egyptian authorities on Thursday released a rights activist jailed over a video she posted online criticising sexual harassment in the country, her husband said.

Amal Fathi, 34, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence in September on charges of spreading fake news after accusing the authorities of failing to protect women in a Facebook video.

She was, however, kept in detention awaiting trial in another case in which she is accused of a second charge of ‘spreading false news’ and ‘membership of a terrorist group’.

Her release on Thursday came after an Egyptian court last week ordered her to be freed.

“She came out today,” husband Mohamed Lotfy, a well-known rights activist, told AFP.

Her conditional release means she must report to the police regularly.

Fathi was first arrested in May over footage in which she also alleged that guards at a bank had sexually harassed her.

She is appealing her two-year suspended sentence and faces a decision in that case on Dec 30.

Some 60 per cent of women in Egypt say they have been victims of some form of sexual harassment during their life, according to a 2017 report by UN Women and Promundo, an organisation that engages men and boys in tackling gender violence. — AFP ANKARA: Turkish authorities yesterday detained dozens of suspects over alleged links to the Islamic State during morning raids in two provinces, state news agency Anadolu reported.

In Ankara, 52 people were taken into custody after the capital’s chief prosecutor issued 64 arrest warrants as part of a probe into the IS jihadist group.

Raids continued to find the 12 other suspects.

Police discovered weapons including guns and ammunition at the homes of the suspects in Ankara, Anadolu reported.

And in the northern province of Samsun, 10 Iraqis were detained over suspected IS ties, the agency said.

Turkish authorities have conducted similar raids in the capital this year.

Just a few days before national elections in June, 14 suspected IS members were detained accused of planning an attack on the polls.

Turkey was hit by a series of terror attacks in 2015 and 2016 attributed to IS and Kurdish militants. — AFP

Turkey detains dozens over alleged IS links