Egypt doctor acquitted
He was accused of forcing detainee to undergo virginity test.
CAIRO — An Egyptian military tribunal on Sunday acquitted an army doctor of a charge of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.
The court denied the tests took place, despite a ruling by another court and admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.
The ruling further infuriated the country’s revolutionary youth movements, which have said claims of the virginity tests were the first sign that the generals who took over from deposed President Hosni Mubarak 13 months ago were carrying on his repressive practices.
Less than four months before the military is scheduled to hand over power to a civilian administration, Sunday’s verdict was likely to lend credibility to widespread suspicions that the generals were trying to remove any legal basis for prosecution for crimes committed during their rule after they step down. Activists are calling for the generals to face charges for humanrights abuses.
Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women who said they were forced to undergo examinations to determine whether they were virgins while detained by the military a year ago, won a civilian court ruling last year that affirmed the tests were taking place at military jails and ordered they be halted.
Military prosecutors investigating her accusations brought only one individual, Dr. Ahmed Adel, to trial, and he was acquitted. The verdict cannot be appealed. The court denied that such tests were carried out.
“No one stained my honor,” Ibrahim wrote on her Twitter account after the verdict. “The one that had her honor stained is Egypt. I will carry on until I restore Egypt’s rights.”
Maj. Gen. Adel al-mursi, head of the military prosecution, defended the verdict in a statement carried by Egypt’s official news agency. He said the judge ruled “according to his conscience and in view of the case’s documents.” He said witnesses for the plaintiff gave conflicting testimony, and that Adel was acquitted also because the testimonies of two prison guards, the jail’s security officer and the head of its clinic insisted that no such test was carried out.
“The court’s denial of the tests being conducted went against written testimonies of several public figures who discussed the issue with several of the ruling generals,” rights lawyer Adel Ramadan said.
The virginity tests created the first tension between the generals and women who took part in the uprising against Mubarak. Late last year, army troops were caught on camera beating female protesters with sticks and stomping on them while they lay helpless on the ground.
One woman was stripped half naked by the troops as they beat her. The video that captured the incident caused an uproar in the conservative, mainly Muslim nation of 85 million people.
Amnesty International said in June that Egypt’s generals acknowledged carrying out the tests on female protesters. It said Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-sisi, a member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, justified the tests as a way to protect the army from rape allegations. The rights group said al-sisi vowed the military would not conduct such tests again.
The virginity-test allegations first surfaced after a March 9 rally in Cairo’s downtown Tahrir Square, epicenter of last year’s uprising, that turned violent when men in plain clothes attacked protesters, and the army intervened to clear the square by force. Ibrahim was detained along with scores of men and women, and a military tribunal later sentenced her to a suspended 12-month prison term.
The military has been in power since Mubarak stepped down last year in the face of a popular uprising.
Also on Sunday, Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament called for a vote on stopping U.S. aid, but it is unlikely that such a move would oblige the nation’s military rulers to ask Washington to halt $1.5 billion in American aid this year.
The move by the People’s Assembly was sparked by the March 1 departure of six American defendants in a case of 43 employees of nonprofit groups accused of using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest in Egypt. The employees include 16 Americans, nine of whom were already outside the country when the case was referred to trial. One opted to stay behind and face the trial.
The rest of the 43 are mostly Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Germans.
The U.S. threatened to cut off aid to Egypt over the issue, but the departure of the six partially eased the crisis, the worst between the two allies in 30 years.
Even if the 508-seat chamber voted to reject U.S. aid, such a move could amount to a symbolic gesture given the wide powers enjoyed by the generals, who collectively act as the presidency, and the likelihood they would approve it in the name of national interest.
The exit of the American defendants, however, kicked off a storm in Egypt, prompting many to accuse the ruling generals of bowing to U.S. pressure and intervening in the work of the judiciary. Egypt’s military has benefited the most from the nation’s close ties with the United States. It is due to get $1.3 billion in aid this year. U.S. economic assistance for 2012 is about $250 million.
In Sunday’s session, lawmakers complained the U.S. had no respect for Egypt’s sovereignty and called for a vote on a noconfidence motion in the military-backed government. The move against the government came after four Cabinet ministers briefed the chamber on the case. Lawmakers constantly interrupted their testimonies.
Several lawmakers later said it was the generals and not the government that must be questioned about the nation’s “humiliation” by the United States over the case. The generals have said they had nothing to do with the Americans’ departure and that the entire affair was in the hands of the judiciary. However, the judge who presided over the trial’s opening hearing on Feb. 26 excused himself late last month, citing uneasiness.
Judge Mahmoud Mohammed Shoukri later said in comments to the media that he quit to protest political meddling in the case, which is now being tried by another court, also in Cairo.