Verdict in online harassment trial of Ahmed Bassam Zaki set for Dec 29

The Cairo Economic Court on Monday set December 29 as the date of the verdict in the trial of Ahmed Bassam Zaki on charges of “sexual harassment using WhatsApp to send sexual insinuations and harass the victims on social media.” Zaki is also being tried separately in a criminal court on multiple charges of sexual assault and coercion.

Zaki, 22, was arrested in early July after multiple accusations of sexual assault, harassment and blackmail were published online by the Instagram account “Assault Police.”

During Monday’s trial session, the defense claimed that the case was based on payments by “a terrorist group” and “foreign parties” to one of the victims to file complaints against Zaki. The plaintiffs’ lawyers responded by noting that it was National Council for Women President Maya Morsi who submitted the report to the Public Prosecution in July. 

The plaintiffs’ lawyers also requested that “the incidents are treated separately,” arguing that Zaki should face multiple punishments from Egypt’s Penal Code given the number of crimes of which he is accused. Additionally, the plaintiff’s lawyers called for Zaki to also be charged with violating the sanctity of private life and using social media to commit crimes.

Ahmed Ragheb, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs, told Mada Masr that, during the next session for the online harassment trial, the court will either hand down a verdict, postpone a verdict or open the floor for further arguments.

Zaki is being tried by an economic court in the online harassment trial for crimes laid out in Article 76 of the Telecommunications Law on “the misuse of telecommunications equipment to harass others,” with penalties ranging from imprisonment to fines of between LE500 and LE20,000. Article 306 of the Penal Code also sets out jail time of between six months and five years and fines ranging from LE3,000 to LE50,000 for “harassment, whether by act, telephone or over the internet.”

On Saturday, the eighth circuit in the Cairo Criminal Court postponed a scheduled hearing in Zaki’s other trial, in which he faces charges for the sexual assault of three women, including a minor, to January 9.

After Zaki’s case, Assault Police played a key role in first publicizing allegations of a gang rape at the Fairmont Hotel in 2014. Several of the men accused were arrested in August and placed in remand detention. However, this was quickly followed by a series of backlash arrests, including witnesses to the 2014 rape. One of the witnesses, Nazli Karim, remains in remand detention, along with party organizer Ahmed al-Ganzouri and Seif Bedour, the latter of whom was arrested while accompanying his friend — another witness in the case — to the police station.