Mona Farouk, Shaimaa al-Haj released

CAIRO - 14 June 2019: The Cairo Chamber of Criminal Investigations decided on Thursday, June 13 to release Mona Farouk and Shaimaa al-Hajj after being detained over charges of inciting immorality by appearing in a pornographic video.

The prosecution of Nasr City, under the supervision of Tamer Arabi, the first attorney general of the prosecution, ordered the imprisonment of actresses Mona Farouk and Shaimaa al-Haj for investigating the charges of public immorality by appearing in a pornographic video.

Egyptian security forces arrested Egyptian actresses Farouk and Haj in March over charges of committing a flagrant act by featuring in porn videos.

Both actresses claimed that Egyptian director Khaled Youssef shot these videos for them in 2015 in his apartment in El-Mohandessin district.

Farouk and Haj stated that Youssef married both of them and that they obeyed all his demands to help them in their artistic career and give them roles.

Youssef travelled to Paris in March to visit his wife and daughter who reside there. He said on his Instagram account at that time that he didn’t escape and that he travelled to Paris before the police arrested Farouk and Haj, adding that he will explain everything to the public very soon.

The Egyptian director is known for his strong contributions to the cinematic scene, tackling various societal topics such as rape, political corruption, and homosexuality.