Famed lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, said he is up for defending Mohamed Adel, the murderer of Mansoura University student Naira Ashraf.
In statements to Al-Watan newspaper, Deeb explained, “I am waiting for the court’s ruling tomorrow, and then I will take my decision, whether to defend him or to withdraw.”
The case of Naira Ashraf shocked Egypt and the Arab world at large, inciting outrage across social media. A similar case took place after Ashraf’s murder, where a Jordanian girl was killed by an armed young man inside a private university, who then committed suicide.
The verdict? Capital punishment
The Mansoura Criminal Court on June 28 sentenced the murderer of Naira Ashraf to death by hanging.
It referred the death sentence of the defendant to the Grand Mufti Shawky Allam for approval.
The court set the session for July 6 to read the final verdict.
A referral to the mufti is required in the Egyptian court system ahead of death sentences, even though the mufti’s opinion is advisory, not binding.
The defendant admitted to committing the crime, claiming he was harassed many times by the victim who he says threatened him and sent thugs after him.
He claimed he brought a knife with him on the day of the crime to defend himself, and attacked the victim after she insulted him in public.
The Public Prosecutor referred the defendant Mohamed Adel on Wednesday to trial before to the Criminal Court over charges of premeditated murder of Ashraf.
The referral decision came 48 hours after the incident.
The Public Prosecution had established evidence before the accused from the testimony of 25 witnesses, including students, university security personnel, and shop workers in the vicinity of the incident.
The victim’s family and friends also testified that the defendant used to harass and threaten the victim with harm because she refused to marry him after he proposed to her, and he tried more than once to force her to do so, which led them to report him to the police.
