WUNRN
EGYPT - COURT ACQUITS ARMY DOCTOR
ACCUSED OF VIRGINITY TESTS
From Mohamed Fadel
Fahmy, For CNN - March 11, 2012
Cairo (CNN) -- An Egyptian court has acquitted an army
doctor accused of forcibly administering virginity tests on female detainees,
state-run Nile TV said Sunday.
The court acquitted the
doctor because of contradictory testimony from witnesses, the government-run
website EgyNews reported.
The issue came to light
last year after several women alleged they were subjected to such examinations
following a March 2011 protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Samira Ibrahim took
Egypt's military-led government to court in August, alleging she was among
those subjected to the test after her arrest during the March 9, 2011, protest.
She said she faced death threats after bringing the case.
On Sunday, the
25-year-old marketing manager said the ruling devastated her.
"This is rape, and
I fainted when I heard the verdict in court," she said. "God knows
the truth, and it will always be a black spot in Egypt's history."
Adel Ramadan, an attorney
represented Ibrahim, said he planned to take the case to authorities outside
Egypt, such as the International Criminal Court.
"Internal judiciary
options have let us down, and we don't think there is judicial
independence," he said. "The Supreme Council ruling the country has
been denying everything from torture, killing protesters, and now this
atrocious crime of forcedvirginity tests of young innocent females. We will not
accept this verdict."
EgyNews reported that
during the hearing, the judge said he was not pressured to make his ruling. But
Ibrahim accused the court of bias."He should have been tried in a civilian
court, not in a military court, where they protect their own. The judge said
that there were contradictions and he was not pressured at all. I highly doubt
that," she said.
Presidential candidate
Abdullah Shalaan said the ruling showed the military government's flaws.
"They will never
indict one of their own. In all the cases of killing protesters, no real
investigations were done, just fact-finding committees that submit their
findings," he said. "No real justice has been served, and this is
another example. I congratulate this brave woman for standing against them
regardless of the final verdict."
In December, an Egyptian
administrative court issued an order banning virginity tests for female
detainees.
The human rights group
Amnesty International reported that Egyptian troops beat, shocked and
strip-searched women arrested during the protests in Cairo and forced them to
submit to virginity tests.
Egyptian authorities
initially denied requiring virginity tests, but in May, a senior general who
asked not to be identified acknowledged the practice.
The general said the
tests were performed as a safeguard against the women accusing authorities of
sexual assault, and he defended the tests.
"The girls who were
detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said at the
time. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters
in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and
(drugs)."
But Ibrahim said her
treatment clearly showed the tests were meant to "degrade the
protesters."
"The military
tortured me, labeled me a prostitute and humiliated me by forcing on me a
virginity test conducted by a male doctor where my body was fully exposed while
military soldiers watched," she said.
Another protester
arrested in the March 9 protest, Salwa Hosseini, offered a similar account,
according to an Amnesty International report on the allegations