NCW praises legislative amendment preserves confidentiality of victims of sexual assault

CAIRO – 9 July 2020: The Egyptian cabinet approved Wednesday a legislative amendment on the criminal code that aims to have any legal prosecutor concealing the data of the victims of indecent assault, sexual harassment, corruption, and assault crimes.

The amendment seeks to have the victims of the aforementioned crimes not afraid to report the assault, a step considered to cope with the latest societal changes that curb targeting the perpetrators of such crimes.

The National Council for Women (NCW) praised the decree taken by the government and thanked the Minister of Justice Omar Marawan who submitted the legislative amendment.

The head of NCW Maya Morsi hailed the amendment as a historical step that proves the government’s concern over the latest reports made by women who were victims of sexual assault, however, they were hesitating to report such crimes.

Morsi commended the fast response of the government that was keen to remove all the obstacles in order to treat such reports with total confidentiality for the sake of the victims.

Morsi asserted that the amendment protects the rights of Egyptian women and girls. The new amendment will have the prosecutor recording all the victim’s data in a separate file during the investigation, and this file will be referred to the court in case the latter requested it.

Egypt’s General Prosecutor has officially ordered on Monday the detainment of accused rapist and serial sexual harasser Ahmed Bassam Zaki, whose case sparked huge controversy, for four days pending investigation.