Egyptian security services have arrested a group of men involved in a Facebook video of a citizen with special needs being bullied on a public road.
No one had submitted any reports with the police regarding the video.
As soon as the security services monitored the incident, the Criminal Investigation Department at the Luxor Security Directorate, under the supervision of the Public Security Sector, identified the victim in the video clip as residing in the city of Qurna in Luxor Governorate, and also identified the six harassers as coming from the city of Armant, Luxor.
Upon their arrest, the mobile phone used in the incident was found in their profession. The suspects admitted to the harassment and to filming the video.
Egypt approved a new article in 2020 which criminalizes bullying, defining it any show of strength or control by the offender, as well as the exploitation of the weakness of the victim, or of a situation that the bully believes would offend the victim such as gender, race, religion, physical descriptions, and health, mental, or social status, with the aim of intimidating, ridiculing or degrading them or of excluding them from a social environment.
The new law sets the punishment of a bully at imprisonment for a period of no less than six months, and a fine that is no less than LE10,000 and no more than LE30,000, or one of these two penalties.
