3 young men arrested over bullying, assaulting handicapped elderly

CAIRO – 21 September 2020: Maragha Prosecution in Sohag ordered detention of three persons for four days pending investigations over bullying a mentally-challenged elderly man and throwing him in the canal.

The assault was captured on video that went viral on social media and raised criticism against the three persons’ attitude.

The trio are facing charges of assaulting a handicapped person; one of the three pushed the old man, and threw him in the water while laughing. The footage was posted on Tik Tok.

Investigations showed that the incident took place four months ago, the three defendants are 15-18 years old, and the elderly man is 60 years old, and is known as Ashour.

Detectives arrested the three assaulters, who then confessed to the crime and the prosecution decided to detain them for four days pending investigations.

Bullying is a type of violence intentionally and repeatedly exercised by an individual on another individual in person or online. It ranges from physical harm to verbal and psychological abuse, and can lead to exclusion, depression and sometimes suicide. It is a terrible phenomenon against which several actors have decided to join hands.

In July, the Egyptian Cabinet approved new amendments to the Egyptian Penal Code to add new articles criminalizing bullying.

The new article stipulated that whoever shows off strength or power, makes fun of a person's weakness, or insults their sex, religion, race, physical appearance, state of health, mental condition, or social level, with the intent to intimidate or ridicule them, is considered a bully.

The bill approved sentencing one who commits such crime to not less than 6 months in prison, in addition to paying a fine of not less than LE10,000 and not more than LE 30,000, or one of these two penalties.