Months after arrests of wintesses, prosecutors issue public call for video of 2014 Fairmont rape

The Public Prosecution urged anyone in possession of footage of the 2014 gang rape alleged to have taken place in Cairo's Fairmont Nile City Hotel to come forward on Wednesday, pledging confidentiality and protection to witnesses.  

In the statement, the prosecution called on the public to perform a “positive social role” and come forward with the video either in person or by sending an email to a specially dedicated address.

An online campaign calling for justice in the Fairmont rape seized national attention last summer. Campaigners, who accused several men by name of drugging and gang-raping a woman after a party, said the men had shot and circulated a video of the crime. 

The National Council for Women urged the victim and witnesses to come forward to make an official complaint. Yet, days after the victim of the rape filed an official complaint with the council in August, four of the main witnesses in the case were arrested amid a smear campaign accusing them of debauchery and of framing the men accused of the rape over personal issues. A fifth person, a friend who had accompanied one of them to the police station, was also detained. Three remained in detention facilities for five months until they were released without charge in January.  

Stating that their investigations revealed that a video of the assault was in circulation, the prosecution added that it was aware that those who had seen it or knew about it had been threatened not to give testimony.  

A person who has the video made a fake account on social media and sent screenshots of it to some of the witnesses before shutting the account down for fear of retribution, the prosecution claimed in the statement. “This behavior alerted the prosecution that some people are not aware of the rights that the Constitution and law grant them regarding guaranteeing witnesses protection and confidentiality of their identity,” the statement continued. 

After the arrest of witnesses in late August, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights published a statement expressing “concern” about witness protection at the Public Prosecution and on the part of the National Council for Women. 

Allegations regarding the 2014 gang rape at the Fairmont Nile City hotel first appeared publicly in July on the @assaultpolice Instagram account.

After putting out a call for testimony and information on the Fairmont incident in late July, the @assaultpolice administrators suspended activity on the account and deleted the posts after reporting that they had received death threats. Other anonymously run pages quickly sprang up to continue the campaign, including Gang Rapists of Cairo and Catcalls of Cairo.

According to Gang Rapists of Cairo, at least six men drugged the victim with the date-rape drug GHB and took her to a hotel room, took turns raping her and wrote their initials on the victim’s body. According to the account, the men who committed the rape filmed the assault and circulated the video among their acquaintances.

However, witnesses who gave testimony in August including Karim, Ganzoury and two other women were arrested in late August and held on charges of incitement to debauchery, drug use, and working to damage the image of the Egyptian state, according to a source Mada Masr spoke with at the time. Seif Budour, a friend of one of the witnesses, was also arrested when he accompanied the friend to a station for questioning. 

While in custody, their private information and personal photos and videos were leaked via news outlets affiliated with the Egyptian security agencies, fuelling a morally charged smear campaign focused on their sexuality and sexual activity. 

“The National Council for Women asked me to bring these girls to them, to tell them that the Council would protect them if they came forward with evidence, and now they’re detained for these crimes they didn’t commit,” one of the women working on the campaign to arrest the alleged perpetrators told Mada Masr last September. “When the arrests started, the council said to keep quiet, and that this was just how the authorities did things, that they were looking for more evidence,” she said. “And now the council is not responding to any of us.”