Egyptian court acquits women jailed for ‘inciting debauchery’ on TikTok
January 12: An Egyptian appeals court has acquitted two young women imprisoned for “attacking society’s values” over videos they published on TikTok, a court official said.
“The court of appeal accepted the appeal filed by Haneen Hossam and Mawada al-Adham against their imprisonment … on charges of incitement to debauchery and attacking society’s values,” the official said, asking not to be named, the Guardian reported.
The women had been sentenced to two years in prison in July for “breaching public morals”.
Hossam had been arrested in April after posting a video on TikTok, telling her 1.3 million subscribers that girls could work with her for money.
She was accused of “inciting debauchery”, “attacking public morals” and “human trafficking”.
Al-Adham, who has about 2 million Instagram followers, was also arrested in May after publishing satirical videos.
They are among a dozen influencers arrested in 2020 for “breaching public morals” in the conservative country.
In June, an Egyptian court sentenced the belly dancer Sama al-Masry to three years over “inciting debauchery” on social media after posting a TikTok dance video.
In 2018, a female singer was detained on the same charge after an online video clip of her dancing went viral.
The previous year, a female pop singer was sentenced to two years in prison on similar charges, also over a video deemed provocative. Her sentence was reduced to a year on appeal.
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