Wednesday, March 27

Egyptian Media Owner Arrested Following Allegations of Trafficking and Sexual Assault | Global development


An Egyptian media mogul with close ties to the government has been detained pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault. The Egyptian prosecutor’s office says it is investigating reports that businessman Mohamed al-Amin sexually abused girls living in an orphanage he owned and took them on a trip to his holiday villa.

Amin, best known for establishing the pro-government CBC network in 2011, was arrested on Friday and will be held for four days. The court decided to extend Amin’s pre-trial detention for another 15 days at a hearing on Sunday in which he told the court: “I never did anything wrong. I treated those girls like my own daughters. “

Allegations of sexual abuse at Safe Hands Home for Girls were first made public in December by the humanitarian organization Missing Children. Its founder, Rami el-Gebali, told The Guardian that a Social Solidarity Ministry official told him in mid-October about multiple complaints about the orphanage that the ministry had been slow to address. The ministry says it closed the house on November 29.

Three girls from the orphanage, ages 13 to 18, reported to Missing Children that Amin had sexually abused them and taken them to his seaside home on Egypt’s north coast. The girls said they were forced to wear revealing clothes and dance for Amin. A 13-year-old girl said that he had presented her with a marriage contract and pressured her to sign it.

In an interview with the Egyptian talk show Sada El Balad, Social Solidarity Minister Niveen Qabbag said that she had been initially impressed by the Safe Hands Home facilities when it officially opened in March 2021. She added that it was well known that Amin used to stay at the orphanage with his wife, but the ministry responded quickly to allegations of sexual abuse by closing the home.

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The story has spread widely on Twitter in Egypt, with many calling the case “Jeffrey Epstein of Egypt,” drawing parallels to the American financier who was found dead in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex crimes.

Amin rose to fame in July 2011, when he launched the CBC news channel after the Arab Spring protests. The network became known for supporting the official line of the interim government, at a time when many stations used the greater freedom of the press to adopt a more critical view after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

When President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi came to power in 2014, Amin was appointed to the board of directors of the presidential development fund Long Live Egypt, to which his company reportedly donated 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds (56.2 million pounds sterling). After his arrest, House member Mostafa Bakry defended Amin on Twitter, saying he was “the first to donate to the Long Live Egypt fund” and calling him “a man known for his faith and piety.”

Amin is not the first establishment figure arrested in recent months. In June of last year, the businessman Hassan Ratib and former MP Alaa Hassanein they were charged with financing illegal excavations and smuggling antiquities from ancient Egypt abroad.

His trial began on Saturday when the court heard that the two men financed four archaeological excavations in different regions.


www.theguardian.com

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