The Court of Cassation ruled to accept the two appeals in cassation, that were submitted by the Public Prosecution and Mrs. Souad Thabet, the civil claimant, but only in form and rejected them in substance, and ordered confiscated the bail of cassation.
This means that the ruling issued on December 17, 2020, by the Minya Criminal Court acquitting the three defendants in the case of stripping Souad Thabet Abdullah, known in the media as “The Lady of Al-Karm (village)” has become final.
The ruling was pronounced during the t January 9 session, nearly two years after the Public Prosecution submitted Appeal of Cassation No. 3070 of 91 BC felonies on January 10, 2021.
The events of the village of Al-Karm in the Abu Qurqas district, south of Minya governorate, go back to Friday, May 20, 2016, when sectarian attacks took place on a number of Christian residents of the village against the backdrop of a rumor of a romantic relationship between a Christian named Ashraf Daniel Attia and a Muslim woman, as dozens of village Muslims looted and burned 5 houses owned by Christians, and three people were injured. Mrs. Souad Thabet, the mother of the accused Christian, was also assaulted, stripped and dragged in front of her house. In addition, rallies were organized in the streets of the village, during which hostile slogans were chanted towards the Christian citizens as a whole.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights commented that the lack of conviction of the defendants amounts to a message inviting the recurrence of attacks, sectarianism and violence against women. EIPR added, “The verdict does not deny the occurrence of the incident, but it indicates the complicity of the state organs since the beginning of the events in 2016 and the non-serious handling of collecting evidence and clues.” As for the strong woman, Mrs. Suad, and of her right to prosecute those accused was lost, “her status remains as a simple Egyptian woman who fought for her right and rejected all the pressures of officials to hold customary reconciliation.”
As for Mrs. Thabet (75), she’s reported to have received the news in quiet tears, saying that her right is no more in people’s hands, but in God’s hand.
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Sources: Local media
